Narrative:

I was acting as an insurance professional for a single pilot owner operator. He was operating the plane single pilot except I was doing the communications. He had upgraded to the plane from a previous model. After takeoff on runway xxl; we started drifting toward runway xxr and I said to the pilot; 'you're drifting to the right. You need to turn left now.' he didn't do or say anything; so I said it again. He said he was turning left. I did not feel/see it turning enough for what I could see was happening; so I said it again and took control; clicking off the autopilot and turning the plane left. As I did that; the TCAS came on told us to climb. We were VMC and could see an airliner that had taken off from runway xxr and was passing us. The plane had been in heading mode and the autopilot on and not in LNAV mode and so was not following the SID. I was concerned with the drifting and didn't notice we were on heading mode soon enough. Nothing was said on the radio to us about this. I assume this was at least in part because with the runway setup we were all maintaining visual separation. In debriefing this incident after the flight; the pilot admitted that he did have the system in heading mode and not LNAV mode and was distracted by something and didn't realize it. He also thought that the initial turn on the SID which was about 2 miles straight ahead from the runway because he didn't think about what our starting altitude was. Due to his unfamiliarity with the avionics; he didn't trust them either. We discussed the need for an out loud briefing so both people in the cockpit know more what is going on even though he is operating as single pilot. We discussed trusting but verifying the avionics and set up. Also; focusing on the flying at hand and also the immediate correction of any issues that require it. For me; I will be more vigilant in verifying the set up and configuration of the systems. I will talk to the other pilot more to confirm the plan and set up. If there is no response from the other pilot in a situation like this I will take the controls sooner.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CE525 pilot operating as an insurance professional reported the PIC drifted towards the parallel runway while departing. It was discovered the aircraft was in heading mode rather than VNAV.

Narrative: I was acting as an insurance professional for a single pilot owner operator. He was operating the plane single pilot except I was doing the communications. He had upgraded to the plane from a previous model. After takeoff on Runway XXL; we started drifting toward Runway XXR and I said to the pilot; 'You're drifting to the right. You need to turn left now.' He didn't do or say anything; so I said it again. He said he was turning left. I did not feel/see it turning enough for what I could see was happening; so I said it again and took control; clicking off the autopilot and turning the plane left. As I did that; the TCAS came on told us to climb. We were VMC and could see an airliner that had taken off from Runway XXR and was passing us. The plane had been in Heading mode and the autopilot on and not in LNAV mode and so was not following the SID. I was concerned with the drifting and didn't notice we were on Heading mode soon enough. Nothing was said on the radio to us about this. I assume this was at least in part because with the runway setup we were all maintaining visual separation. In debriefing this incident after the flight; the pilot admitted that he did have the system in Heading mode and not LNAV mode and was distracted by something and didn't realize it. He also thought that the initial turn on the SID which was about 2 miles straight ahead from the runway because he didn't think about what our starting altitude was. Due to his unfamiliarity with the avionics; he didn't trust them either. We discussed the need for an out loud briefing so both people in the cockpit know more what is going on even though he is operating as single pilot. We discussed trusting but verifying the avionics and set up. Also; focusing on the flying at hand and also the immediate correction of any issues that require it. For me; I will be more vigilant in verifying the set up and configuration of the systems. I will talk to the other pilot more to confirm the plan and set up. If there is no response from the other pilot in a situation like this I will take the controls sooner.

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.