Narrative:

After takeoff while climbing I noticed on my side mfd (multi-function display) that the route and course looked off so I knew flying the RNAV departure was going to be difficult using my side. However on the pilot monitoring's side appeared to be working fine and we had time before having to make a turn so I prioritized flying the plane; continued to track the straight course referencing the pm's (pilot monitoring's) side and being sure to stay clear of any potential traffic on the parallel until I felt it was safe to transfer the controls. Tower switched us off to departure; but due to the distraction we forgot to actually switch frequencies and contact departure. Once in the turn; it then became obvious we'd lost the GPS due to the first officer's (first officer's) mfd course also becoming unreliable too. As I was getting ready to key up the mike to request vectors; the tower asked if we were still here; gave us a heading; and then handed us off to departure again. When I contacted departure; they notified us that we were right of course. Departure then gave us vectors to the next VOR fix on our route and we flew green needles to the destination. Asked to give ATC a call on the ground; they said we did deviate from course; but at no time did we ever impede on any other aircraft or airspace. The cause of the course deviation was the loss of GPS and slow communication with ATC about the failure. We should have immediately asked for vectors when aware of the problem. While initially we were attempting to reduce the air traffic controller workload; in the end we created more. Poor communication on our part to ATC and it needed to be made far sooner.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ-200 Captain reported experiencing a GPS signal failure after departure and being notified by ATC of a course deviation.

Narrative: After takeoff while climbing I noticed on my side MFD (Multi-Function Display) that the route and course looked off so I knew flying the RNAV departure was going to be difficult using my side. However on the pilot monitoring's side appeared to be working fine and we had time before having to make a turn so I prioritized flying the plane; continued to track the straight course referencing the PM's (Pilot Monitoring's) side and being sure to stay clear of any potential traffic on the parallel until I felt it was safe to transfer the controls. Tower switched us off to Departure; but due to the distraction we forgot to actually switch frequencies and contact Departure. Once in the turn; it then became obvious we'd lost the GPS due to the FO's (First Officer's) MFD course also becoming unreliable too. As I was getting ready to key up the mike to request vectors; the tower asked if we were still here; gave us a heading; and then handed us off to departure again. When I contacted departure; they notified us that we were right of course. Departure then gave us vectors to the next VOR fix on our route and we flew green needles to the destination. Asked to give ATC a call on the ground; they said we did deviate from course; but at no time did we ever impede on any other aircraft or airspace. The cause of the course deviation was the loss of GPS and slow communication with ATC about the failure. We should have immediately asked for vectors when aware of the problem. While initially we were attempting to reduce the air traffic controller workload; in the end we created more. Poor communication on our part to ATC and it needed to be made far 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.