While on an IFR clearance 'direct to' their airport of intended landing the captain of a BE40 electe...

Narrative:

Last instruction from ATC was 'cleared direct to destination'. We were getting close to the airport and as we were a little bit high the captain decided to go to the 5 mile fix from runway 35 (we were visual). I said to him that it was a deviation from our clearance and that I was going to ask the controller if we were authorized to do that. The captain said that we were ok and that we didn't have to ask them. That it was an uncontrolled airport. As I was trying to explain to the captain that we should advise ATC; the controller came on the radio and asked us if we were going direct to the airport. I replied that we were on base to runway 35. The controller got very upset and asked us not to do that again as we were on an IFR flight plan. I agreed and the captain proceeded direct to the airport. My conclusion is that yes; we were high (we even had to overfly the airport to land) but we should have advised ATC of our intentions regardless if we were on an uncontrolled airport and it was VFR weather. I needed to be more assertive and take action and let ATC know of our intentions.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: While on an IFR clearance 'direct to' their airport of intended landing the Captain of a BE40 elected to alter course to position himself for a visual approach without ATC approval. He was taken to task initially by his First Officer and shortly after by ATC.

Narrative: Last instruction from ATC was 'cleared direct to destination'. We were getting close to the airport and as we were a little bit high the Captain decided to go to the 5 mile fix from Runway 35 (we were visual). I said to him that it was a deviation from our clearance and that I was going to ask the Controller if we were authorized to do that. The Captain said that we were OK and that we didn't have to ask them. That it was an uncontrolled airport. As I was trying to explain to the Captain that we should advise ATC; the Controller came on the radio and asked us if we were going direct to the airport. I replied that we were on base to Runway 35. The Controller got very upset and asked us not to do that again as we were on an IFR flight plan. I agreed and the Captain proceeded direct to the airport. My conclusion is that yes; we were high (we even had to overfly the airport to land) but we should have advised ATC of our intentions regardless if we were on an uncontrolled airport and it was VFR weather. I needed to be more assertive and take action and let ATC know of our intentions.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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	989014
Time
Date	201201
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	CVO.Airport
State Reference	IN
Environment
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Beechjet 400
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 135
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 200 Flight Crew Total 2861 Flight Crew Type 248
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

While on an IFR clearance 'direct to' their airport of intended landing the captain of a BE40 elected to alter course to position himself for a visual approach without ATC approval. He was taken to task initially by his first officer and shortly after by ATC.