CE500 instructor pilot reported his student lost 300 ft of altitude during single engine practice an...

Narrative:

I was giving a biennial flight review in the private owner's aircraft. He wanted to also do some single engine work. After doing a touch & go; I pulled the #2 engine back to idle on climb out. While getting vectors for a return for the ILS; the owner was working on getting the plane trimmed up. I was offering verbal guidance when the controller asked us to state our altitude. To my disbelief; we were at 2200 ft. Our assigned altitude was 2500. I stated that we had dropped to 2200 ft and were climbing back up to 2500. The owner was so engrossed in taking care of the aircraft and trimming the rudder and ailerons that he never even watched the altimeter. I was talking to him about things that would help him get the aircraft squared away in a more timely fashion and also was not watching the vertical activity of the aircraft. The controller never mentioned the event again and we continued with our planned single engine ILS then returned to the owner's home base airport. The owner learned to keep his scan in an emergency and I learned that I could have waited a bit on some of what I was trying to help him with; when he could have better absorbed it and allowing him and me to keep better attention to the immediate task at hand.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CE500 instructor pilot reported his student lost 300 FT of altitude during single engine practice and neither pilot being aware until notified by ATC.

Narrative: I was giving a biennial flight review in the private owner's aircraft. He wanted to also do some single engine work. After doing a touch & go; I pulled the #2 engine back to idle on climb out. While getting vectors for a return for the ILS; the owner was working on getting the plane trimmed up. I was offering verbal guidance when the Controller asked us to state our altitude. To my disbelief; we were at 2200 FT. Our assigned altitude was 2500. I stated that we had dropped to 2200 FT and were climbing back up to 2500. The owner was so engrossed in taking care of the aircraft and trimming the rudder and ailerons that he never even watched the altimeter. I was talking to him about things that would help him get the aircraft squared away in a more timely fashion and also was not watching the vertical activity of the aircraft. The controller never mentioned the event again and we continued with our planned single engine ILS then returned to the owner's home base airport. The owner learned to keep his scan in an emergency and I learned that I could have waited a bit on some of what I was trying to help him with; when he could have better absorbed it and allowing him and me to keep better attention to the immediate task at hand.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	844520
Time
Date	200907
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Citation I (C500)
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Instructor
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 35 Flight Crew Total 12500 Flight Crew Type 3600
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Clearance

CE500 instructor pilot reported his student lost 300 ft of altitude during single engine practice and neither pilot being aware until notified by ATC.