Narrative:

I was flying an IFR trip to vancouver in an aircraft I don't have a lot of time in. I'm instrument rated; current; but evidently not 100% proficient. I was flying along with gpss enabled on the aspen pfd; feeding from the garmin 480 (#1 nav). About 4 miles before the penn cove VOR (cvv); ATC instructed me to fly to the VOR and fly outbound the 310 radial to intercept the yvr 145 radial. In my effort to tune and identify both stations; I got behind the airplane. By the time I got yvr tuned into my #2 nav; I was already past the 145 radial and I had lost situational awareness. I flip-flopped the #1 nav to the yvr VOR and turned to intercept. But because I was task saturated; I didn't realize that I had twisted a 145 course (not a 325 course) into the aspen. Further; I rotated the heading bug to make the aircraft turn to intercept a course of 145. I had lost situational awareness and failed to see the big picture (I knew; of course; that the yvr VOR was north west of my position; I just didn't incorporate that information). As I was in the turn; ATC asked me for my heading. I can't remember what it was; but in response they said 'why are you going that way; that won't intercept the VOR.' at that point I confessed and complied; saying something like 'well help me out; then please. What heading should I fly?' they gave me an on-course heading; I realized my mistake; tuned in the VOR correctly; and completed the remainder of the flight uneventfully. So what happened? Well; it was difficult to transition between the 480 as a GPS navigator and a nav radio. In retrospect; there are three things I could have done; one of which I know how to do off the top of my head; two of which I will/have looked up to improve my familiarity. 1) I should have had cvv dialed in as a backup. I think the principle of being able to 'step down the ladder' in terms of complexity is helpful; but not if you have to scramble to lookup frequencies; tune; identify; twist; etc. And I could even have had yvr as a cross radial already; knowing that it would add to situational awareness. All this even though I was on a flight plan on a capable GPS navigator. 2) use foreflight to get some more situational awareness. In this case; that was complicated a bit. I was using their new jeppesen IFR low charts which doesn't show the navaid frequency or morse identification; so I had to do more hunting. I could have input the radial intersection as a waypoint and seen a graphical display; but I didn't know how to do that at the time (it turns out you can enter with a series of slashes: cvv/310/yvr/145). That would have improved my situational awareness. 3) use the GNS 480 to intercept a course off of a GPS fix. I know this can be done; but I have to lookup how. Things I did well: ask ATC for help. Especially in single-pilot ops they are a great cross check (as they were here). They're quite good at pointing out errors/deviations; but they sometimes need to be nudged to provide help. Flying IFR is hard. I would have rather not have made this mistake; but I'm happy ATC called me out and helped me get back on course.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Cessna 210 pilot reported task saturation; losing situational awareness; deviating from course; and asking for assistance after the Controller asked why he had made a turn. The Controller provided assistance and the flight then proceeded normally.

Narrative: I was flying an IFR trip to Vancouver in an aircraft I don't have a lot of time in. I'm instrument rated; current; but evidently not 100% proficient. I was flying along with GPSS enabled on the Aspen PFD; feeding from the Garmin 480 (#1 nav). About 4 miles before the Penn Cove VOR (CVV); ATC instructed me to fly to the VOR and fly outbound the 310 radial to intercept the YVR 145 radial. In my effort to tune and identify both stations; I got behind the airplane. By the time I got YVR tuned into my #2 Nav; I was already past the 145 radial and I had lost situational awareness. I flip-flopped the #1 nav to the YVR VOR and turned to intercept. But because I was task saturated; I didn't realize that I had twisted a 145 course (not a 325 course) into the Aspen. Further; I rotated the heading bug to make the aircraft turn to intercept a course of 145. I had lost situational awareness and failed to see the big picture (I knew; of course; that the YVR VOR was North West of my position; I just didn't incorporate that information). As I was in the turn; ATC asked me for my heading. I can't remember what it was; but in response they said 'Why are you going that way; that won't intercept the VOR.' At that point I confessed and complied; saying something like 'Well help me out; then please. What heading should I fly?' They gave me an on-course heading; I realized my mistake; tuned in the VOR correctly; and completed the remainder of the flight uneventfully. So what happened? Well; it was difficult to transition between the 480 as a GPS navigator and a nav radio. In retrospect; there are three things I could have done; one of which I know how to do off the top of my head; two of which I will/have looked up to improve my familiarity. 1) I should have had CVV dialed in as a backup. I think the principle of being able to 'step down the ladder' in terms of complexity is helpful; but not if you have to scramble to lookup frequencies; tune; identify; twist; etc. And I could even have had YVR as a cross radial already; knowing that it would add to situational awareness. All this even though I was on a flight plan on a capable GPS navigator. 2) Use Foreflight to get some more situational awareness. In this case; that was complicated a bit. I was using their new Jeppesen IFR low charts which doesn't show the navaid frequency or Morse ID; so I had to do more hunting. I could have input the radial intersection as a waypoint and seen a graphical display; but I didn't know how to do that at the time (it turns out you can enter with a series of slashes: CVV/310/YVR/145). That would have improved my situational awareness. 3) Use the GNS 480 to intercept a course off of a GPS fix. I know this can be done; but I have to lookup how. Things I did well: Ask ATC for help. Especially in single-pilot ops they are a great cross check (as they were here). They're quite good at pointing out errors/deviations; but they sometimes need to be nudged to provide help. Flying IFR is hard. I would have rather not have made this mistake; but I'm happy ATC called me out and helped me get back on course.

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.