Narrative:

Shortly before clearance onto the active; we were given a 'turn to' heading on departure. That was set into the fcp. Unfortunately the turn began in the wrong direction when selected after takeoff. An immediate correction was made. Physical preparation for departure began in the chocks with the discussion of which SID was anticipated for the leg. The two similar departures call for tracking segments with attention paid to dual runway operations and warnings and cautions for parallel runway traffic. That's all fine. While still not 100% certain of the exact point at which the error was introduced; I suspect it may have been selecting 'navigation' early in the preparation for departure. I've noticed a trend on the line to make the 'navigation' selection well before the 'below the line' portion of the before takeoff checklist. In recent history; I've experienced two occasions where I've been surprised at events after coupling the flight controls to the autopilot; this occasion; and another time when the updated instructions from tower for departure heading was made by the pilot not flying. In the present case; the checklist was run and departure instructions reviewed. We caught the error in a timely manner corrected to the directed heading.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier flight crew departed on YSSY SYD 4 departure with an ATC assigned heading; but the Captain engaged the autopilot with NAV active on the SYD 4 and turned the wrong direction before catching the error and correcting it.

Narrative: Shortly before clearance onto the active; we were given a 'turn to' heading on departure. That was set into the FCP. Unfortunately the turn began in the wrong direction when selected after takeoff. An immediate correction was made. Physical preparation for departure began in the chocks with the discussion of which SID was anticipated for the leg. The two similar departures call for tracking segments with attention paid to dual runway operations and warnings and cautions for parallel runway traffic. That's all fine. While still not 100% certain of the exact point at which the error was introduced; I suspect it may have been selecting 'NAV' early in the preparation for departure. I've noticed a trend on the line to make the 'NAV' selection well before the 'below the line' portion of the Before Takeoff Checklist. In recent history; I've experienced two occasions where I've been surprised at events after coupling the flight controls to the autopilot; this occasion; and another time when the updated instructions from Tower for departure heading was made by the pilot not flying. In the present case; the checklist was run and departure instructions reviewed. We caught the error in a timely manner corrected to the directed heading.

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.