CL30 captain reported confusion over the wording of a SID.

Attributes
ACN	1745272
Time
Date	202006
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	MDW.Tower
State Reference	IL
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Challenger 300
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Takeoff
Route In Use	Vectors SID Midway 5
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 26 Flight Crew Total 6000 Flight Crew Type 150
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Narrative:

My co-pilot and I both agree that the midway 5 departure at mdw is confusing at best. The chart says that you have to maintain a heading until turning to a new heading. What isn't clear is that you will get an assigned heading by the tower. But a new heading assigned by the tower should supersede all other clearances; right? So midway tower should say comply with the SID and then turn to a heading. My other argument is that most departures are either all long range navigation (navigation) or a heading (heading). This is an airport where you take off in navigation and have the added switch to heading almost immediately. This is an added step out of the normal sequence of events for our departures. I am not in favor of that; especially in a crowded airspace when our workload is the highest. The midway 5 should be an all navigation with clear expectations for the airplanes to comply.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CL30 Captain reported confusion over the wording of a SID.

Narrative: My Co-pilot and I both agree that the Midway 5 Departure at MDW is confusing at best. The chart says that you have to maintain a heading until turning to a new heading. What isn't clear is that you will get an assigned heading by the tower. But a new heading assigned by the tower should supersede all other clearances; right? So Midway Tower should say comply with the SID and then turn to a heading. My other argument is that most departures are either all long range navigation (NAV) or a heading (HDG). This is an airport where you take off in NAV and have the added switch to HDG almost immediately. This is an added step out of the normal sequence of events for our departures. I am not in favor of that; especially in a crowded airspace when our workload is the highest. The Midway 5 should be an all NAV with clear expectations for the airplanes to comply.

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.