Narrative:

Flight was a cirrus introductory flight with pilot-rated passenger in left seat on his first flight in aircraft and PIC/instructor in right seat (me). IFR flight was normal in VMC conditions the entire flight. Upon descent to the airport; approach told us to expect a visual approach and asked us to reduce speed to 170 KTS (voice 1). We were indicating 165 KTS and stated that to ATC. A different voice (voice 2) responded from ATC stating that we needed to slow without giving a specific speed for traffic. It appeared that ATC had training in progress and I made the comment as such to the left seat pilot. We slowed and continued descent to 4000 ft. We were given a vector slightly away from the airport; 040 degrees (not sure of the exact heading) by voice 1 controller. I discussed this with the left seater and that they would probably be giving us s-turns to widen the gap between us and whatever other traffic was out there and he agreed. We were then given a turn to 340 degrees by the same controller. There wasn't any emphasis on which direction to turn; and since we had discussed s-turns; we turned the short way (60 degrees) from 040 to 340 degrees. No traffic was referenced during this instruction either; just the turn to 340 degrees. We acknowledged the turn and ATC did not question our acknowledgement. Just about the time we rolled out on the 340 degree heading; the controller with voice 2 queried our heading. I responded that we were in fact established on the 340 degree heading as instructed. The controller with voice 2 then took the time to explain that we were supposed to have turned right to 340 degrees; not left; and that we were converging with traffic to parallel runway. He then instructed us to turn immediately to a heading of 090 degrees or something close to that; which we did. Our aircraft is equipped with a skywatch traffic system and gives the crew an aural warning of traffic converging within a certain distance and it never generated a traffic warning. The system does not give resolution advisories; just traffic advisories. We were informed before ATC switched us to tower that we would need to call them after arrival for a possible pilot deviation; which I did. During the phone call; I asked the controller I was speaking with; was there ATC training in progress which he acknowledged that there was. I believe as with many incidents; this was the result of a chain of events. First; we were training in our aircraft - a sophisticated glass cockpit high performance single engine airplane. This was the left seat pilot rated passenger's first flight in the type. There is quite a bit of information to absorb if you are new to the cirrus and I was given instruction constantly throughout the flight; including during the incident. Second; approach confirmed to me that they had controller training in progress during the incident. The controller with voice 1 might have said right turn to 340; but neither one of us in our aircraft heard any emphasis on the direction as usually follows an unusual or unexpected turn; such as 'turn right; right turn; all the way around to 340' or something similar. We did not understand that the controller's intent of the turn was to do at 270 degree reversal ATC did not question our read back of the instruction either. Training is in itself a distraction and I believe that it contributed to us in the aircraft missing the direction of turn. I also believe that if a little extra emphasis had been placed in the direction of turn; we might not have turned the wrong direction.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A SR22 Instructor Pilot flying in the right seat with a pilot new to the aircraft in the left seat; was given delaying turns on final approach by a Controller under training. The aircraft was given a heading change requiring a 270 degree turn but the pilots understood a 90 degree turn.

Narrative: Flight was a Cirrus introductory flight with pilot-rated passenger in left seat on his first flight in aircraft and PIC/instructor in right seat (me). IFR flight was normal in VMC conditions the entire flight. Upon descent to the airport; Approach told us to expect a visual approach and asked us to reduce speed to 170 KTS (voice 1). We were indicating 165 KTS and stated that to ATC. A different voice (voice 2) responded from ATC stating that we needed to slow without giving a specific speed for traffic. It appeared that ATC had training in progress and I made the comment as such to the left seat pilot. We slowed and continued descent to 4000 FT. We were given a vector slightly away from the airport; 040 degrees (not sure of the exact heading) by voice 1 Controller. I discussed this with the left seater and that they would probably be giving us S-turns to widen the gap between us and whatever other traffic was out there and he agreed. We were then given a turn to 340 degrees by the same Controller. There wasn't any emphasis on which direction to turn; and since we had discussed S-turns; we turned the short way (60 degrees) from 040 to 340 degrees. No traffic was referenced during this instruction either; just the turn to 340 degrees. We acknowledged the turn and ATC did not question our acknowledgement. Just about the time we rolled out on the 340 degree heading; the Controller with voice 2 queried our heading. I responded that we were in fact established on the 340 degree heading as instructed. The controller with voice 2 then took the time to explain that we were supposed to have turned right to 340 degrees; not left; and that we were converging with traffic to parallel runway. He then instructed us to turn immediately to a heading of 090 degrees or something close to that; which we did. Our aircraft is equipped with a skywatch traffic system and gives the crew an aural warning of traffic converging within a certain distance and it never generated a traffic warning. The system does not give resolution advisories; just traffic advisories. We were informed before ATC switched us to Tower that we would need to call them after arrival for a possible pilot deviation; which I did. During the phone call; I asked the Controller I was speaking with; was there ATC training in progress which he acknowledged that there was. I believe as with many incidents; this was the result of a chain of events. First; we were training in our aircraft - a sophisticated glass cockpit high performance single engine airplane. This was the left seat pilot rated passenger's first flight in the type. There is quite a bit of information to absorb if you are new to the Cirrus and I was given instruction constantly throughout the flight; including during the incident. Second; Approach confirmed to me that they had Controller training in progress during the incident. The Controller with voice 1 might have said right turn to 340; but neither one of us in our aircraft heard any emphasis on the direction as usually follows an unusual or unexpected turn; such as 'turn right; right turn; all the way around to 340' or something similar. We did not understand that the Controller's intent of the turn was to do at 270 degree reversal ATC did not question our read back of the instruction either. Training is in itself a distraction and I believe that it contributed to us in the aircraft missing the direction of turn. I also believe that if a little extra emphasis had been placed in the direction of turn; we might not have turned the wrong direction.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.