Narrative:

It was a very busy morning at the class C primary airport; with GA; commercial; and military aircraft departing and landing on runways 30L and right. To complicate matters; a part of one taxiway was closed; making a long; for me; unfamiliar detour to the active runway. I was using for the first time an ipad for the airport diagram; but it was not working for me because I had not downloaded the app properly the night before; so it took me a while to figure out where to go; and it frustrated me not a little.I had a long wait on a perpendicular taxiway before crossing 30R to 30L. During the wait; I put in the gyro compass correction; but being 90 degrees from the runway heading; I picked the wrong heading on the left side of the compass; so when I turned to the runway heading; it read 180 degrees from what it should read. Big mistake!I was cleared to cross 30R and back taxi on 30L; and when I reached the end of the runway; turn around and takeoff and fly runway heading. Feeling I should hurry because of all the traffic; I didn't check the gyro compass as I usually do when I lined up for takeoff. Right after I lifted off; I was given a heading of 030 and instructions to climb above 4;000 to stay out of the way of the F-16s in the pattern. Several times previously; I had been instructed to stay below 4;000 until cleared to climb; which was what I heard. So after getting off the ground; I started to turn to the 030 reading on my gyro; the exact opposite direction required; and began to watch my altitude to stay below 4;000.I shortly sensed that something was very wrong with my direction of flight as I knew that my heading was not where 030 should take me and I began to correct my heading; ignoring the compass; according to my knowledge of the terrain. At that point; the tower said I didn't appear to be climbing and that he wanted me above 4;000; which I immediately corrected. I have to say that much of this was happening at a very fast rate and my responses were mostly intuitive and automatic; or to put in another way; I was way behind the airplane. This apparently was the end of the problem; as the tower passed me off to departure without comment.I was a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic from the start. Frustrated by the ipad fiasco; which I carried with me during the long taxiing and holding period; distractedly setting the gyro compass incorrectly; not engaging situational awareness before takeoff; and then serious confusion in trying to figure out where I was going while getting instructions from the tower to be somewhere else made this a bad day.all of this could have been avoided if I had slowed down before takeoff; done my checklist and thought through what was going to happen next (which is on my pre-takeoff checklist). I wanted to please the controllers; so I thought I would help by doing a brisk turnaround and takeoff and get out of their hair as soon as possible. Good intentions; maybe; but pleasing in this sense is not thinking. We are not in the business of pleasing each other in a social sense. Flying and controlling are professional activities. All we need to do to please each other is do the work professionally. It is truly a dance where both partners are fully participating.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A C-172 pilot; engrossed in an improperly configured EFB and distracted from essential pre takeoff tasks such as properly aligning his gyro compass; took off from TUS; turned 180 degrees the wrong way when given a vector and failed to expedite his climb above 4;000 MSL as requested by ATC.

Narrative: It was a very busy morning at the Class C primary airport; with GA; commercial; and military aircraft departing and landing on Runways 30L and R. To complicate matters; a part of one taxiway was closed; making a long; for me; unfamiliar detour to the active runway. I was using for the first time an iPad for the airport diagram; but it was not working for me because I had not downloaded the App properly the night before; so it took me a while to figure out where to go; and it frustrated me not a little.I had a long wait on a perpendicular taxiway before crossing 30R to 30L. During the wait; I put in the gyro compass correction; but being 90 degrees from the runway heading; I picked the wrong heading on the left side of the compass; so when I turned to the runway heading; it read 180 degrees from what it should read. Big mistake!I was cleared to cross 30R and back taxi on 30L; and when I reached the end of the runway; turn around and takeoff and fly runway heading. Feeling I should hurry because of all the traffic; I didn't check the gyro compass as I usually do when I lined up for takeoff. Right after I lifted off; I was given a heading of 030 and instructions to climb above 4;000 to stay out of the way of the F-16s in the pattern. Several times previously; I had been instructed to stay below 4;000 until cleared to climb; which was what I heard. So after getting off the ground; I started to turn to the 030 reading on my gyro; the exact opposite direction required; and began to watch my altitude to stay below 4;000.I shortly sensed that something was very wrong with my direction of flight as I knew that my heading was not where 030 should take me and I began to correct my heading; ignoring the compass; according to my knowledge of the terrain. At that point; the Tower said I didn't appear to be climbing and that he wanted me above 4;000; which I immediately corrected. I have to say that much of this was happening at a very fast rate and my responses were mostly intuitive and automatic; or to put in another way; I was way behind the airplane. This apparently was the end of the problem; as the Tower passed me off to departure without comment.I was a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic from the start. Frustrated by the iPad fiasco; which I carried with me during the long taxiing and holding period; distractedly setting the gyro compass incorrectly; not engaging situational awareness before takeoff; and then serious confusion in trying to figure out where I was going while getting instructions from the Tower to be somewhere else made this a bad day.All of this could have been avoided if I had slowed down before takeoff; done my checklist and thought through what was going to happen next (which is on my pre-takeoff checklist). I wanted to please the controllers; so I thought I would help by doing a brisk turnaround and takeoff and get out of their hair as soon as possible. Good intentions; maybe; but pleasing in this sense is not thinking. We are not in the business of pleasing each other in a social sense. Flying and controlling are professional activities. All we need to do to please each other is do the work professionally. It is truly a dance where both partners are fully participating.

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.