Student pilot on a training flight reported they failed to follow the departure procedure and received a Terrain Alert during their initial climb..

ACN 2105772 2024-04 Small Aircraft, Low Wing, 1 Eng, Fixed Gear Controlled Flight Toward Terrain

Initial ClimbPart 91

What is ASRS?

The Aviation Safety Reporting System is NASA's voluntary, confidential, non- punitive incident-reporting system, established 1976. Pilots, controllers, dispatchers, and maintenance technicians file reports describing safety- relevant events. NASA de-identifies every report before adding it to the public database. Reports are not investigated by NASA, the FAA, or the NTSB — they represent the reporter's perspective.

Pilot narrative

Verbatim from the de-identified NASA record. First-person account by the reporter. NASA strips identifying details (names, company, specific time); anonymization placeholders are ZZZ, X, Y.

On Day 0 at approximately XA:05, acting as PIC, [I] departed Runway 22R from Felts Field (SFF) and deviated from instructed departure procedure. I am in the process of working through my online ground school and today was my first scheduled flight to begin working my IFR training. My instructor and I decided to operate locally between SFF and ZZZ with departure, holding, and approaches. In the last 90 days I have been diligently working on being comfortable flying my aircraft in VMC and was excited to begin working on exploring its IFR capabilities. In today’s flight wind was 210 @ 15 gusting 25. While speaking with Ground at SFF, we requested local IFR clearance for the practiced approach for Runway X at ZZZ with a hold at ZZZZZ. We were assigned departure procedure for Felts Four, and to climb to 6,000. This route does require a climbing left turn to heading 190, and then we would be assigned vectors from there. While in the runup area, myself and my instructor reviewed the plates for the departure and arrival procedures. My aircraft is equipped with a Garmin 430W and we loaded the departure procedure and then the arrival procedure; however, we noticed that we lost the departure procedure in doing so. So, we went ahead made a cognitive decision to depart and fly heading 190 and to await instructions. In the process of departing the wind hit more violently than expected and I found myself flying heading 170. With rising terrain and flying in VMC I instinctively began flying a downwind departure as I've done dozens of times instead of sticking to the 190 procedure filed. The systems in the airplane operated perfectly in notifying me of rising terrain, as well as the controllers at Spokane Approach were quickly on the ball to ensure I was OK. I recognize the importance of following instructions and understanding exactly what I'm to do, for had this been in IMC conditions the outcome would've been very different. I sincerely apologize for my actions and take full responsibility for them.

NASA classification — Anomalies

Deviation - Track / Heading
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural
Inflight Event / Encounter

NASA classification — Assessments

Contributing Factors / Situations: Chart Or Publication · Environment - Non Weather Related · Software and Automation · Procedure · Human Factors
Primary Problem: Human Factors

ASRS reports are voluntarily submitted, de-identified by NASA, and represent the reporter's perspective. The presence of reports on a topic cannot be used to infer prevalence in the National Airspace System. The authoritative source is the NASA ASRS Database Online at asrs.arc.nasa.gov ↗.