Student pilot misunderstood air traffic control instructions after takeoff.

Attributes
ACN	1661444
Time
Date	201907
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	GFK.Airport
State Reference	ND
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Small Aircraft
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Climb
Route In Use	Other Pattern
Flight Plan	VFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Student
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 32 Flight Crew Total 53 Flight Crew Type 53
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Conflict NMAC Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Track / Heading All Types
Miss Distance	Horizontal 400 Vertical 300

Narrative:

I was given clearance to take off runway 35R; I was told to make right traffic and follow the traffic in the upwind. When traffic in upwind was stated; the call for the upwind sounded muffled. I assumed he meant the traffic in the downwind which was in sight and my response to the controller was 'we will follow the traffic.' upon passing 1300 feet; I turned crosswind and continued my climb up to 1600 feet. Controller gave a traffic alert and told me to turn south and the other aircraft to turn east. The flight was completed with no further incident.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Student Pilot misunderstood Air Traffic Control instructions after takeoff.

Narrative: I was given clearance to take off RWY 35R; I was told to make right traffic and follow the traffic in the upwind. When traffic in upwind was stated; the call for the upwind sounded muffled. I assumed he meant the traffic in the downwind which was in sight and my response to the controller was 'We will follow the traffic.' Upon passing 1300 feet; I turned crosswind and continued my climb up to 1600 feet. Controller gave a traffic alert and told me to turn south and the other aircraft to turn east. The flight was completed with no further incident.

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.