Narrative:

Clearance was right turn to heading 240; climb to 2;200 ft; for vectors. The HSI is adjusted by a knob with two functions. To set the heading bug the knob is just turned; to set the heading indicator [compass card] the knob is pushed in and held in while the knob is turned. During the run-up checks I had set the heading bug to 240 degrees. On runway line-up I noticed the heading indication was about 20 degrees off; so I pushed the knob in and set the heading to 120. After take-off starting the turn to 240; the departure controller cleared me to 2;700 ft and heading 240. I started to set the altitude alerter to 2;700 and found I could not see the display because the sun was shinning directly on the led display; so decided to just concentrate on the turn and then noticed the heading bug was not on 240. While trying to set the heading bug I mistakenly pushed the knob in; realized my error and then pulled it out; set the heading bug to 240. As I rolled out on heading 240 the departure controller said he was showing my ground track was 300 degrees. I started an immediate turn to the left and thought about what I would use to set the HSI to the proper heading. At that time the HSI was showing about 170 degrees and I looked at my compass which was spinning wildly. I rolled wings level and the controller said to check my altitude; so I started a descent back to 2;700 ft. I then remembered I could see ground track on the garmin 530 which was 270 degrees. I tried to set the HSI to 270 and it just precessed about 30 degrees off of 270 when I released the knob and again had to descend to 2;700. I had not had a chance to trim the aircraft to level flight. I realized I needed to focus on getting the airplane on a heading of 240 and 2;700 ft which I did by using the garmin ground track info. Once established on 240 I pushed the knob in to reset the heading to 240 and held the knob in for about 5 seconds to give the gyro a chance to settle down on the heading; this worked and I was able to trim for level flight and engage the autopilot. The remainder of the flight proceeded normally. After seeing the way the HSI precessed when I tried to reset the heading I believe the same thing resulted when I mistakenly pushed the knob in while in a turn to set the heading bug and since I was turning I did not recognize this until the controller called it to my attention. I believe factors contributing to this event are as follows: 1) low time in this type aircraft; 38 hours and 14.8 hours in this particular aircraft which has different flight instruments and avionics configuration than the only other C414A I have flown. 2) I believe also I have some negative transfer from the aircraft I have flown the most in the last two years. That was 200 hours + in aircraft configured with garmin G-l000's. I believe many of the knobs on the G-1000's have to be pushed in to arm the function you are trying to adjust. There is simply no substitute for recent experience in type as equipped.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C414 pilot reports difficulties with the compass system during initial climb and turn to assigned heading. Heading and altitude deviations both occur while attempting to adjust the compass card. Lack of experience with the C414 compass system is cited as the primary cause.

Narrative: Clearance was right turn to heading 240; climb to 2;200 FT; for vectors. The HSI is adjusted by a knob with two functions. To set the heading bug the knob is just turned; to set the heading indicator [compass card] the knob is pushed in and held in while the knob is turned. During the run-up checks I had set the heading bug to 240 degrees. On runway line-up I noticed the heading indication was about 20 degrees off; so I pushed the knob in and set the heading to 120. After take-off starting the turn to 240; the Departure Controller cleared me to 2;700 FT and heading 240. I started to set the altitude alerter to 2;700 and found I could not see the display because the sun was shinning directly on the LED display; so decided to just concentrate on the turn and then noticed the heading bug was not on 240. While trying to set the heading bug I mistakenly pushed the knob in; realized my error and then pulled it out; set the heading bug to 240. As I rolled out on heading 240 the Departure Controller said he was showing my ground track was 300 degrees. I started an immediate turn to the left and thought about what I would use to set the HSI to the proper heading. At that time the HSI was showing about 170 degrees and I looked at my compass which was spinning wildly. I rolled wings level and the Controller said to check my altitude; so I started a descent back to 2;700 FT. I then remembered I could see ground track on the Garmin 530 which was 270 degrees. I tried to set the HSI to 270 and it just precessed about 30 degrees off of 270 when I released the knob and again had to descend to 2;700. I had not had a chance to trim the aircraft to level flight. I realized I needed to focus on getting the airplane on a heading of 240 and 2;700 FT which I did by using the Garmin ground track info. Once established on 240 I pushed the knob in to reset the heading to 240 and held the knob in for about 5 seconds to give the gyro a chance to settle down on the heading; this worked and I was able to trim for level flight and engage the autopilot. The remainder of the flight proceeded normally. After seeing the way the HSI precessed when I tried to reset the heading I believe the same thing resulted when I mistakenly pushed the knob in while in a turn to set the heading bug and since I was turning I did not recognize this until the Controller called it to my attention. I believe factors contributing to this event are as follows: 1) low time in this type aircraft; 38 hours and 14.8 hours in this particular aircraft which has different flight instruments and avionics configuration than the only other C414A I have flown. 2) I believe also I have some negative transfer from the aircraft I have flown the most in the last two years. That was 200 hours + in aircraft configured with Garmin G-l000's. I believe many of the knobs on the G-1000's have to be pushed in to arm the function you are trying to adjust. There is simply no substitute for recent experience in type as equipped.

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.