A BE36 pilot departed hef on the ARSNL2 departure; but his lack of familiarity with the GPS and lack...

Narrative:

From hef clearance delivery I was assigned arsenal 2 departure; mol transition. On takeoff; began left turn to intercept csn 056R and contacted potomac departure. Checked in; told to maintain 2;000 ft and was immediately asked about my routing. Having not flown the procedure; I became concerned that I had misunderstood the departure clearance and stopped my turn toward csn. After confirming my written clearance I read it back to ATC and was told that I missed the turn to csn and to turn immediately to heading 190. I made the turn and leveled at 2;000 ft. After a few moments I was cleared direct to mol and to climb to 8;000 ft. Using the RNAV system; I entered mol which gave me a course of approximately 330 degrees. As I began making the turn; I realized that this was not the correct course and by the time I realized my error; the controller came back asking me where I was going. I responded 'direct mol' as I was turning toward the correct course. This was my first IFR flight plan in a small aircraft in several years; having only recently returned to general aviation. I did review the appropriate procedures and was familiar with the relative geographic position of the airport; csn; mol and class B airspace having flown in the area for many years. Unfortunately; I did not account for my own uncertainty when queried by ATC for my route. My relative lack of experience in the aircraft and; more significantly; with the garmin GPS demanded more of me than expected. The result was that as I focused on flying the aircraft and attempting to derive the necessary information from the navigation system; I lost basic situational awareness allowing the controller's question to cast doubt in my plan (which it was not intended to do) and the GPS to lead me in a direction that I knew was not correct. To prevent future occurrences; I must increase my familiarity with the aircraft and the navigation system to reduce the considerable workload of flying single pilot.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A BE36 pilot departed HEF on the ARSNL2 departure; but his lack of familiarity with the GPS and lack of confidence because of low recent experience caused a track deviation as ATC questioned his route after takeoff.

Narrative: From HEF Clearance Delivery I was assigned Arsenal 2 departure; MOL transition. On takeoff; began left turn to intercept CSN 056R and contacted Potomac Departure. Checked in; told to maintain 2;000 FT and was immediately asked about my routing. Having not flown the procedure; I became concerned that I had misunderstood the departure clearance and stopped my turn toward CSN. After confirming my written clearance I read it back to ATC and was told that I missed the turn to CSN and to turn immediately to heading 190. I made the turn and leveled at 2;000 FT. After a few moments I was cleared direct to MOL and to climb to 8;000 FT. Using the RNAV system; I entered MOL which gave me a course of approximately 330 degrees. As I began making the turn; I realized that this was not the correct course and by the time I realized my error; the Controller came back asking me where I was going. I responded 'direct MOL' as I was turning toward the correct course. This was my first IFR flight plan in a small aircraft in several years; having only recently returned to general aviation. I did review the appropriate procedures and was familiar with the relative geographic position of the airport; CSN; MOL and Class B airspace having flown in the area for many years. Unfortunately; I did not account for my own uncertainty when queried by ATC for my route. My relative lack of experience in the aircraft and; more significantly; with the Garmin GPS demanded more of me than expected. The result was that as I focused on flying the aircraft and attempting to derive the necessary information from the navigation system; I lost basic situational awareness allowing the Controller's question to cast doubt in my plan (which it was not intended to do) and the GPS to lead me in a direction that I knew was not correct. To prevent future occurrences; I must increase my familiarity with the aircraft and the navigation system to reduce the considerable workload of flying single pilot.

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.

Attributes
ACN	983730
Time
Date	201112
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	HEF.Airport
State Reference	VA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Bonanza 36
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Climb
Route In Use	SID ARSNL.2
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	GPS & Other Satellite Navigation
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Flight Engineer Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Multiengine
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 180 Flight Crew Total 19000 Flight Crew Type 11
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

A BE36 pilot departed hef on the ARSNL2 departure; but his lack of familiarity with the GPS and lack of confidence because of low recent experience caused a track deviation as ATC questioned his route after takeoff.