Narrative:

I departed north las vegas airport (vgt) on an instrument clearance of which the first leg was to fly the SID of northtown three departure.after I received clearance; I studied the SID and then entered the SID into the garmin. I familiarized myself with the autopilot sequence of flying to intercept a radial and then flying outbound on the radial. I verified that the SID was correctly installed in the garmin and then entered the rest of my clearance waypoints.approximately 3 months earlier I had flown the similar rightturn one departure from vgt; so I felt I was familiar with the requirements of the SID. I had flown the SID correctly using garmin and autopilot.upon being cleared for takeoff from runway 30L; I looked to my garmin and autopilot to fly the departure sequence. However; it quickly became evident that there was a problem. The autopilot did not sequence; there was no magenta line and the aircraft was only flying the runway heading. I turned to the west and then concentrated my attention on the garmin to figure out what was wrong. My attention was fixed on the GPS and trying to determine what buttons I needed to press to initiate the flight plan departure sequence.I knew that we were heading towards the mountains to the west of the field. We were in VMC and I could clearly see the mountains and thought I had time to figure out what I had done wrong with the garmin before I had to manually divert to ruzco; the waypoint on the SID. Las vegas approach finally alerted me that my aircraft was too close to the high terrain and issued a vector to turn immediately. I complied at once. At no time did my terrain warning system alert. Later las vegas approach gave me a number to call because of a possible pilot deviation.in replaying the incident over and over in my head; I now know that I should not have allowed myself to become absorbed in the garmin and autopilot to the exclusion of flying the procedure. I should have asked ATC for vectors or could have hand flown the departure. Also; although I did not think we were perilously close to the mountain at the time; obviously terrain alerts were going off at ATC and I probably misjudged that. In retrospect; my desire to figure out the garmin superseded sound judgment which would have meant confessing to ATC that I needed help and then to fly the airplane and remain safe.as a postscript to this incident: I purchased the garmin app for my ipad and practiced the SID's from vgt for hours. Because of the program; I was able to realize that although I had entered the SID correctly; I had failed to activate it properly. I have scheduled recurrent training for myself in early february. I intend to practice the SID's from vgt and others like it on a simulator with an instructor to assure that I do not repeat the mistakes I made earlier.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: PA46 pilot reports becoming distracted departing VGT on the Northtown 1 when the autopilot is unable to follow the procedure. ATC commands a turn due to rising terrain to the west of the airport. The flight plan had been entered into the Garmin but not activated.

Narrative: I departed North Las Vegas airport (VGT) on an instrument clearance of which the first leg was to fly the SID of Northtown Three departure.After I received clearance; I studied the SID and then entered the SID into the Garmin. I familiarized myself with the autopilot sequence of flying to intercept a radial and then flying outbound on the radial. I verified that the SID was correctly installed in the Garmin and then entered the rest of my clearance waypoints.Approximately 3 months earlier I had flown the similar Rightturn One departure from VGT; so I felt I was familiar with the requirements of the SID. I had flown the SID correctly using Garmin and autopilot.Upon being cleared for takeoff from Runway 30L; I looked to my Garmin and autopilot to fly the departure sequence. However; it quickly became evident that there was a problem. The autopilot did not sequence; there was no magenta line and the aircraft was only flying the runway heading. I turned to the west and then concentrated my attention on the Garmin to figure out what was wrong. My attention was fixed on the GPS and trying to determine what buttons I needed to press to initiate the flight plan departure sequence.I knew that we were heading towards the mountains to the west of the field. We were in VMC and I could clearly see the mountains and thought I had time to figure out what I had done wrong with the Garmin before I had to manually divert to Ruzco; the waypoint on the SID. Las Vegas Approach finally alerted me that my aircraft was too close to the high terrain and issued a vector to turn immediately. I complied at once. At no time did my terrain warning system alert. Later Las Vegas Approach gave me a number to call because of a possible pilot deviation.In replaying the incident over and over in my head; I now know that I should not have allowed myself to become absorbed in the Garmin and autopilot to the exclusion of flying the procedure. I should have asked ATC for vectors or could have hand flown the departure. Also; although I did not think we were perilously close to the mountain at the time; obviously terrain alerts were going off at ATC and I probably misjudged that. In retrospect; my desire to figure out the Garmin superseded sound judgment which would have meant confessing to ATC that I needed help and then to fly the airplane and remain safe.As a postscript to this incident: I purchased the Garmin app for my iPad and practiced the SID's from VGT for hours. Because of the program; I was able to realize that although I had entered the SID correctly; I had failed to activate it properly. I have scheduled recurrent training for myself in early February. I intend to practice the SID's from VGT and others like it on a simulator with an instructor to assure that I do not repeat the mistakes I made earlier.

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.