An instructor and his instrument rating seeking student pilot in an advanced cockpit cessna began a ...

Narrative:

It was an instrument training flight to rtn in a single engine cessna with a garmin G1000 cockpit and GFC700 autopilot and flight director. Student was flying under the hood. We had briefed the approach and the student had the navigation and automation all programmed correctly. Autopilot was engaged with VNAV. Cruising at 12;000 until the cim; where the VOR/DME 02 approach to rtn begins. Arrived at cim and autopilot began published approach; commencing descent to 8;400. However; ARTCC had not cleared us for a descent or approach; and in spite of 'instrument training flight' being entered in the remarks section of flight plan; they didn't query us as to what type of approach we wanted at rtn. They then advised us of an altitude deviation and we said something like; 'yeah; we want the VOR/DME-a approach.' controller said something like 'so; you're clearing yourself for the approach; is that correct?' I replied that we had the airport in sight and would like a visual. He then cleared us for the visual and I canceled IFR. He then gave us a little speech about the terrain in the area. This was a case of being too prepared; and 'expecting' something and performing as if what we had expected had already occurred. It was also a case of relying too much on the ship's automation...it was all programmed to do what we 'expected'; not what we had been cleared to do. I'll be more careful with that in the future...I only have about 100 hours with the garmin G1000 cockpit; and fewer than 20 using this autopilot/flight director combination.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Instructor and his Instrument rating seeking Student Pilot in an advanced cockpit Cessna began a descent for an approach without a clearance to do so.

Narrative: It was an instrument training flight to RTN in a single engine Cessna with a Garmin G1000 cockpit and GFC700 autopilot and flight director. Student was flying under the hood. We had briefed the approach and the student had the navigation and automation all programmed correctly. Autopilot was engaged with VNAV. Cruising at 12;000 until the CIM; where the VOR/DME 02 approach to RTN begins. Arrived at CIM and autopilot began published approach; commencing descent to 8;400. However; ARTCC had not cleared us for a descent or approach; and in spite of 'instrument training flight' being entered in the remarks section of flight plan; they didn't query us as to what type of approach we wanted at RTN. They then advised us of an altitude deviation and we said something like; 'yeah; we want the VOR/DME-A approach.' Controller said something like 'so; you're clearing yourself for the approach; is that correct?' I replied that we had the airport in sight and would like a visual. He then cleared us for the visual and I canceled IFR. He then gave us a little speech about the terrain in the area. This was a case of being too prepared; and 'expecting' something and performing as if what we had expected had already occurred. It was also a case of relying too much on the ship's automation...it was all programmed to do what we 'expected'; not what we had been cleared to do. I'll be more careful with that in the future...I only have about 100 hours with the Garmin G1000 cockpit; and fewer than 20 using this autopilot/flight director combination.

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	904434
Time
Date	201008
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZAB.ARTCC
State Reference	NM
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Cessna Single Piston Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Descent
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	GPS & Other Satellite Navigation
Person 1
Function	Instructor Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 50 Flight Crew Total 4600 Flight Crew Type 500
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Clearance

An instructor and his instrument rating seeking student pilot in an advanced cockpit cessna began a descent for an approach without a clearance to do so.