Narrative:

I departed runway 17R at pwa. I had been assigned the redhawk 2 departure with holle transition. After departing the airport; and engaging the autopilot; I contacted departure and conducted the climb checklist. After the checklist was completed; I realized the aircraft was in a seemingly uncommanded left turn (to the east) which was not in compliance with the published SID. I disengaged the autopilot and momentarily fixated on the issue as I hand flew the aircraft. I was confused as to why the aircraft was on its current heading. I decided to ask for help from approach control. As I was about to key the microphone to ask for a vector to re-establish; oklahoma city approach advised me to turn to a heading which was close to my current heading. I received traffic updates and was assigned an expedited climb due to traffic ahead. I continued navigation via radar vectors until I was cleared direct holle. I did not receive any TCAS alerts or ATC advisories that any traffic separation issues existed. I reviewed my flight plan loaded in the FMS in an attempt to find the cause of the issue. I believe I incorrectly loaded the departure procedure. The first course in the legs page was from the departure airport to holle. However; once I was cleared direct holle; it became difficult to retrace my steps to see where the programming error had really occurred. After departing; I suspect that I mistakenly selected navigation mode when I activated the autopilot instead of ensuring heading mode was selected. This caused the airplane to turn to an east/southeast bound heading. I do not recall the altitude at which the autopilot was engaged but in hindsight; it may have been at a lower than appropriate altitude. I should have been more thorough in briefing the departure procedure rather than relying on the FMS system. I should have also briefed myself better on the airport elevation; surrounding airports; and surrounding airspace.human performance considerations:1) in a rush to relocate back to home airport so aircraft could be used for another flight (I was behind schedule).2) failure to properly brief SID 3) failure to ensure proper FMS programming

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: BE9L pilot reported a track deviation resulted when he improperly set up his FMS for departure.

Narrative: I departed Runway 17R at PWA. I had been assigned the Redhawk 2 departure with HOLLE transition. After departing the airport; and engaging the autopilot; I contacted departure and conducted the climb checklist. After the checklist was completed; I realized the aircraft was in a seemingly uncommanded left turn (to the east) which was not in compliance with the published SID. I disengaged the autopilot and momentarily fixated on the issue as I hand flew the aircraft. I was confused as to why the aircraft was on its current heading. I decided to ask for help from approach control. As I was about to key the microphone to ask for a vector to re-establish; Oklahoma City Approach advised me to turn to a heading which was close to my current heading. I received traffic updates and was assigned an expedited climb due to traffic ahead. I continued navigation via radar vectors until I was cleared direct HOLLE. I did not receive any TCAS alerts or ATC advisories that any traffic separation issues existed. I reviewed my flight plan loaded in the FMS in an attempt to find the cause of the issue. I believe I incorrectly loaded the departure procedure. The first course in the legs page was from the departure airport to HOLLE. However; once I was cleared direct HOLLE; it became difficult to retrace my steps to see where the programming error had really occurred. After departing; I suspect that I mistakenly selected NAV mode when I activated the autopilot instead of ensuring heading mode was selected. This caused the airplane to turn to an east/southeast bound heading. I do not recall the altitude at which the autopilot was engaged but in hindsight; it may have been at a lower than appropriate altitude. I should have been more thorough in briefing the departure procedure rather than relying on the FMS system. I should have also briefed myself better on the airport elevation; surrounding airports; and surrounding airspace.Human Performance Considerations:1) In a rush to relocate back to home airport so aircraft could be used for another flight (I was behind schedule).2) Failure to properly brief SID 3) Failure to ensure proper FMS programming

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.