Narrative:

At gate X in ZZZ; filed to ZZZ1 on the ZZZX departure. The flight plan after the SID started at ZZZ. We requested log-on from ZZZ2 for the departure clearance 30 minutes prior to push. Flight plan (legs) verification accomplished per SOP. First departure clearance came about 20 minutes prior to push indicating a new clearance for the zzzzzy; zzzzz [intersection]; as filed. Started to update flight plan to account for this. While editing flight plan; another departure clearance came in for ZZZX; ZZZ [VOR]; zzzzz [intersection]; af. Started editing flight plan again to account for reversion to original flight plan and SID. Completed another flight plan verification from ZZZ. Completed briefing. Standard push back and taxi for [runway] xxr. Completed before takeoff checklist; inclusive of the 'runway confirm.' both the first officer and myself think we both saw the correct runway on the nd during the final check; as well as the departure brief. On takeoff; very early after liftoff; switched to departure control. Very early in climb; 'navigation' engaged; catching me off guard as it seemed like we were below 400 feet; commanding a hard right turn. I instinctively followed the flight directors initially. In the turn; still below thrust reduction altitude (1;000 feet); I realized from my briefing that the turn should have been to the left; not the hard right turn the flight directors were commanding. I started to correct back to the left. I did not see any traffic in our immediate vicinity on TCAS. ATC then assigned us a heading of 350. As we were in the turn to heading 350 ATC mentioned that we were supposed to turn left. I believe were around a northerly heading when we hit 1;000 feet; our thrust reduction altitude. We apologized to ATC and inquired if there was a traffic conflict; which he replied 'no.' he handed us off. About 60-90 minutes into the flight we were notified over cpdlc of a possible pilot deviation and to call TRACON. I called TRACON and the supervisor was very cordial. He explained what they had seen; and we also told him what had happened on our end. He told me they had been seeing this event a fair amount lately. Coincidentally; on the same aircraft yesterday for the outbound flight to ZZZ; we had to have maintenance reset the FMC's on the ground in ZZZ1 because both with; and without; a flight plan in the FMC; as soon as the flight directors would be turned on the lateral 'navigation' mode would engage and command a hard right turn. We tried resetting everything; inclusive of the adirs; swapping the nav data base; and the same thing kept happening. After maintenance reset the FMC's problem went away. Caught/detected by myself (PF) below thrust reduction altitude of 1;000 feet. Correction applied.first flight and operation into a busy complicated airport in over 6.5 months due to the covid situation. Numerous cockpit distractions during cockpit setup. Several ATC digital clearances within a short period of time. External stresses caused by current state of affairs currently going on within our country and our company. Potential aircraft navigation technical issue; however; I cannot rule out pilot error. Possible pilot error scenarios would be; departure procedure in the FMC jarred/messed up by the second cpdlc clearance route uplink; and subsequently not caught during second flight plan verification. Potentially wrong runway set in FMC during cockpit setup. The first officer and I don't believe it is the incorrect runway scenario because we did the flight plan verification; briefing; and final runway confirmation approaching the runway threshold as per SOP; and we believe we saw the digital representation of the runway on the nd. But I have to admit this is a possibility. At all times all sops were adhered to the best of our knowledge.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier flight crew reported turning right instead of left on departure. Both pilots referenced lack of flying as a contributing factor.

Narrative: At gate X in ZZZ; filed to ZZZ1 on the ZZZX Departure. The flight plan after the SID started at ZZZ. We requested log-on from ZZZ2 for the departure clearance 30 minutes prior to push. Flight plan (legs) verification accomplished per SOP. First Departure clearance came about 20 minutes prior to push indicating a new clearance for the ZZZZZY; ZZZZZ [Intersection]; as filed. Started to update flight plan to account for this. While editing flight plan; another Departure Clearance came in for ZZZX; ZZZ [VOR]; ZZZZZ [Intersection]; AF. Started editing flight plan again to account for reversion to original flight plan and SID. Completed another flight plan verification from ZZZ. Completed briefing. Standard push back and taxi for [Runway] XXR. Completed before takeoff checklist; inclusive of the 'runway confirm.' Both the FO and myself think we both saw the correct runway on the ND during the final check; as well as the departure brief. On takeoff; very early after liftoff; switched to Departure Control. Very early in climb; 'NAV' engaged; catching me off guard as it seemed like we were below 400 feet; commanding a hard right turn. I instinctively followed the flight directors initially. In the turn; still below thrust reduction altitude (1;000 feet); I realized from my briefing that the turn should have been to the left; not the hard right turn the flight directors were commanding. I started to correct back to the left. I did not see any traffic in our immediate vicinity on TCAS. ATC then assigned us a heading of 350. As we were in the turn to Heading 350 ATC mentioned that we were supposed to turn left. I believe were around a northerly heading when we hit 1;000 feet; our thrust reduction altitude. We apologized to ATC and inquired if there was a traffic conflict; which he replied 'no.' He handed us off. About 60-90 minutes into the flight we were notified over CPDLC of a possible pilot deviation and to call TRACON. I called TRACON and the Supervisor was very cordial. He explained what they had seen; and we also told him what had happened on our end. He told me they had been seeing this event a fair amount lately. Coincidentally; on the same aircraft yesterday for the outbound flight to ZZZ; we had to have maintenance reset the FMC's on the ground in ZZZ1 because both with; and without; a Flight plan in the FMC; as soon as the flight directors would be turned on the lateral 'NAV' mode would engage and command a hard right turn. We tried resetting everything; inclusive of the ADIRS; swapping the nav data base; and the same thing kept happening. After maintenance reset the FMC's problem went away. Caught/detected by myself (PF) below thrust reduction altitude of 1;000 feet. Correction applied.First flight and operation into a busy complicated airport in over 6.5 months due to the COVID situation. Numerous cockpit distractions during cockpit setup. Several ATC digital clearances within a short period of time. External stresses caused by current state of affairs currently going on within our country and our company. Potential aircraft navigation technical issue; however; I cannot rule out pilot error. Possible pilot error scenarios would be; departure procedure in the FMC jarred/messed up by the second CPDLC clearance route uplink; and subsequently not caught during second flight plan verification. Potentially wrong runway set in FMC during cockpit setup. The FO and I don't believe it is the incorrect runway scenario because we did the Flight Plan verification; briefing; and final runway confirmation approaching the runway threshold as per SOP; and we believe we saw the digital representation of the runway on the ND. But I have to admit this is a possibility. At all times all SOPs were adhered to the best of our knowledge.

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.