Narrative:

I was working normal traffic at the sector; lots of VFR and flight school traffic mixed with IFR corporate aircraft in the airspace. A MO21 contacted me and asked for advisories. Aircraft was just entering my sector. I identified him and advised him to maintain VFR outside of bravo airspace and had a brief exchange with pilot about his desire to climb due to clouds. I instructed pilot to maintain VFR at or below 7;000 as that was the limit of my sector and issued traffic which was an A319 that was descending to 8;000 and was going to be crossing above him. I took care of other requirements in the sector then noticed the MO21 climbing through 7;300 towards the A319 which was at 8;000 and advised him to stop his climb and turn easterly immediately. The MO21 said he'd go southbound to which I replied that he couldn't and that he was to descend easterly immediately. The pilot was seemingly uncaring about what he'd done and not understanding that he had just committed a pilot deviation. This occurred at the end of my shift. Driving home immediately following this; I observed only a thin scattered layer of clouds in the location where this occurred. In my opinion; as a pilot and long time veteran controller; there was no reason for this pilot to climb where and when he did. I hope that in the works and coming soon; there will be a way to violate airman such as this one without making it a known event to management and inviting scrutiny to my entire session. I did not issue the standard pilot deviation phraseology. There were point outs made to the other sectors involved prior to identifying this aircraft and providing radar service to it. I don't remember telling the aircraft when instructed to maintain VFR at or below 7;000; if I'd authorized him to enter the class B airspace or if I advised him that he'd left it when I was terminating radar service. I would recommend that pilots be reminded through the FAA's publicity venues that a radar control instruction is mandatory. There seems to be a lot more GA pilots lately who take control instructions as a suggestion.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A P50 Controller described a near conflict when providing VFR services to a general aviation aircraft that failed to comply with ATC directions.

Narrative: I was working normal traffic at the Sector; lots of VFR and flight school traffic mixed with IFR corporate aircraft in the airspace. A MO21 contacted me and asked for advisories. Aircraft was just entering my sector. I identified him and advised him to maintain VFR outside of Bravo airspace and had a brief exchange with pilot about his desire to climb due to clouds. I instructed pilot to maintain VFR at or below 7;000 as that was the limit of my sector and issued traffic which was an A319 that was descending to 8;000 and was going to be crossing above him. I took care of other requirements in the sector then noticed the MO21 climbing through 7;300 towards the A319 which was at 8;000 and advised him to stop his climb and turn easterly immediately. The MO21 said he'd go southbound to which I replied that he couldn't and that he was to descend easterly immediately. The pilot was seemingly uncaring about what he'd done and not understanding that he had just committed a Pilot Deviation. This occurred at the end of my shift. Driving home immediately following this; I observed only a thin scattered layer of clouds in the location where this occurred. In my opinion; as a pilot and long time veteran controller; there was no reason for this pilot to climb where and when he did. I hope that in the works and coming soon; there will be a way to violate airman such as this one without making it a known event to management and inviting scrutiny to my entire session. I did not issue the standard pilot deviation phraseology. There were point outs made to the other sectors involved prior to identifying this aircraft and providing RADAR service to it. I don't remember telling the aircraft when instructed to maintain VFR at or below 7;000; if I'd authorized him to enter the Class B airspace or if I advised him that he'd left it when I was terminating radar service. I would recommend that pilots be reminded through the FAA's publicity venues that a RADAR control instruction is mandatory. There seems to be a lot more GA pilots lately who take control instructions as a suggestion.

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.