An instructor pilot and his student; departed on the student's first cross country with an incorrect...

Narrative:

I was the instructor on a students very first cross country flight and he failed to set the altimeter to the correct field elevation of 466 ft. The departure airport is uncontrolled and has no automated weather or ATIS. The student set the altimeter to read one inch or 1000 ft lower than actual field elevation which read 9;466 on the analog altimeter. As we took off the student attempted to open our flight plan with radio with no response and climbed to 500 ft below the ceiling which we believed to be 2500 MSL as indicated by the altimeter. The student was too busy trying to keep up with the plane to notice the incorrect altimeter setting. Also; as the instructor; I was busy trying to get the student caught up in checklist procedures; nav logs; avoiding a scattered layer in moderate rain and contacting the correct ATC facility that I did not notice the error in the altimeter setting. As we flew west we planned to transition through an air force base class D airspace. Upon initial radar contact the controller informed us; '...radar contact 6 miles west of the VOR 3500 ft.' I responded as the pilot not flying; '...indicating 2500 ft' air force base tower controller then responded back; 'field altimeter setting 29.80 check altimeter and ident.' the student began resetting the altimeter to the stated setting and it read 3500 ft. I immediately realized the mistake and that we were in class B airspace and told the student to descend. I then responded to the controller; 'indicating 3500 and descending.' we descended to 2500 ft MSL and continued with our transition through the air force base airspace. The time spent in the class B airspace was about 2 minutes and both the student and I were unaware until the controller at air force base informed us of the incorrect altimeter setting. I then took immediate action by having the student descend below the 3000 ft floor of the class B airspace. This event was unintentional and the student and I learned a valuable lesson to double check altimeter settings and instruments.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Instructor Pilot and his student; departed on the student's first cross country with an incorrectly set altimeter. Subsequently; they entered Class B airspace while transiting a Class D airport. The altimeter was then correctly set and they descended out of Class B.

Narrative: I was the instructor on a students very first cross country flight and he failed to set the altimeter to the correct field elevation of 466 FT. The departure airport is uncontrolled and has no automated weather or ATIS. The student set the altimeter to read one inch or 1000 FT lower than actual field elevation which read 9;466 on the analog altimeter. As we took off the student attempted to open our flight plan with radio with no response and climbed to 500 FT below the ceiling which we believed to be 2500 MSL as indicated by the altimeter. The student was too busy trying to keep up with the plane to notice the incorrect altimeter setting. Also; as the instructor; I was busy trying to get the student caught up in checklist procedures; nav logs; avoiding a scattered layer in moderate rain and contacting the correct ATC facility that I did not notice the error in the altimeter setting. As we flew west we planned to transition through an Air Force Base Class D airspace. Upon initial radar contact the Controller informed us; '...Radar contact 6 miles west of the VOR 3500 FT.' I responded as the pilot not flying; '...Indicating 2500 FT' Air Force Base Tower Controller then responded back; 'Field altimeter setting 29.80 check altimeter and ident.' The student began resetting the altimeter to the stated setting and it read 3500 FT. I immediately realized the mistake and that we were in Class B airspace and told the student to descend. I then responded to the Controller; 'Indicating 3500 and descending.' We descended to 2500 FT MSL and continued with our transition through the Air Force Base airspace. The time spent in the Class B airspace was about 2 minutes and both the student and I were unaware until the controller at Air Force Base informed us of the incorrect altimeter setting. I then took immediate action by having the student descend below the 3000 FT floor of the Class B airspace. This event was unintentional and the student and I learned a valuable lesson to double check altimeter settings and instruments.

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	870250
Time
Date	201001
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Climb Cruise
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	VFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Altimeter
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 9.8 Flight Crew Total 330 Flight Crew Type 47
Person 2
Function	Trainee
Qualification	Flight Crew Student
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 8 Flight Crew Total 35 Flight Crew Type 35
Events
Anomaly	Airspace Violation All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

An instructor pilot and his student; departed on the student's first cross country with an incorrectly set altimeter. Subsequently; they entered class B airspace while transiting a class D airport. The altimeter was then correctly set and they descended out of class B.