B757-200
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Total 8100
Confusion; Workload
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Aircraft; Human Factors
I was the FO and acting as PF for the leg. I was on a reserve short call starting at XA:00. I was awakened and notified for the trip at XC:00. The CA and I had flown together several times over the years. We departed JFK a couple minutes ahead of schedule. The cockpit crew was ready to push 20 minutes before departure. The only oddity was the PDC which indicated after takeoff to fly heading 070. We set that in the MCP per normal. Weather was 10+ miles visibility with distant scattered puffy cumulus. Winds at takeoff were around 160/10; a moderate head/crosswind. Ground ops and taxi to runway 13R full length were normal and unhurried. After takeoff at 300 AGL the tower controller said 'Start your right turn; contact departure.' The CA read back the instruction. I called 'Heading select' and began a right turn while looking out the windshield & side window to clear in the direction of turn. The CA looked up from retuning the radio & said 'That's left 070; where are you going?' At the same instant I looked at the instruments and was surprised to see the flight director leaning one way and the horizon leaning the other. I said something like 'She said turn right.' The CA said something like 'She did say turn right; but we need to go left'. We were at about heading 145 when I started back to the left; and by now we're passing 1000 AGL. A bit above 1000 I called 'Climb power; VNAV; flaps 5.' The CA did those actions while checking in with departure saying something like 'Departure; passing 1200 for 5000. Turning left 070.' By now we were passing about heading 100. The departure controller said 'Turn right heading 120.' I promptly reversed turn again back to the right as the CA read back the clearance then reset the MCP heading bug. The net effect of this zig-zag path was to have us about a mile straight out the extended centerline of the very long runway 13R. Meanwhile we're also accelerating & I called for 'Flaps 1.' I was real mindful of this left/right confusion being a big opportunity for a flap over-speed and am paying particular attention to keeping the pitch up a bit vs. normal and hence the speed building only gradually. I was trying to slow down the dynamics in that dimension to buy time & brain bytes until we settle down the heading/vector confusion. Just as the flight director started cueing the rollout for heading 120 the controller said 'Turn right heading 160.' I had just called 'Flaps up' before he transmitted and the CA was moving the flap handle as the controller was talking. The CA read back the clearance and as I continued the turn towards 160 I reached up to reset the MCP heading bug to 160. I'd already had enough today of flight directors pointing where I wasn't going. The voice caution system announced 'Bank Angle Bank Angle'. I was amazed to look back at the ADI and see 40-plus degrees of bank. At the same instant the CA exclaimed 'That's 45 degrees of bank!' & I felt him come on the controls and input some left roll. We smoothly but quickly rolled back to a normal bank angle and the CA released his input. The warning did not sound a second time. After a few more seconds of turn I rolled out on the 160 heading. By then we were clean; wings level on assigned heading; 2000-ish MSL at vRef + 80 (clean maneuvering speed or top bug) knots. Event over. Passing 2600 MSL VNAV reset the airspeed target to 250 and we continued accelerating to 250 while climbing to 5000 MSL. With the flight director centered; speed stable; and in trim I turned on the right autopilot. We were step-climbed and vectored per typical out towards WAVEY then handed off to NY center. No controller made any comment about anything unusual with our departure.Normally while holding short of the runway if I'm PF I announce something like 'After takeoff it's turn left/right heading xxx; climb to xxx feet' or 'After takeoff it's RNAV to FIXXX; climb to xxx feet'. I did not do that this time for whatever unknown reason. Intellectually speaking back at the gate 45 minutes ago I knew the assigned heading was 070 & I knew the runway heading was 135. I hadn't put the two facts together operationally to recognize it as a 60ish degree left turn versus the typical right turn towards the beach. So I was primed to goof when the tower controller goofed by saying 'start your right turn.' Two holes in the cheese lined up. Up through 'gear up' I was comfortably ahead of the airplane. But once confusion set in about the direction of turn I was hand-flying from behind the airplane for most of a minute until we got all squared away. The problem is that we had an undesired bank angle excursion in that short time. It was remarkable how quickly a combination of clearance confusion; a frequency change; frequency congestion; and normal configuration changes can lead to going from green to red. In addition to their & my goofs it was further bad luck that both controllers happened to call right at each of our action points. Things are happening fast in that phase of flight anyhow and between the time taken to listen to the controller; the PM respond; the PF also respond; and then reset the airplane's switchology and also actually fly things can get unacceptably busy. Which contributed further to a feeling of behind-ness and set up a misplaced belief in a need to rush to comply. A minor contributor was we were flying an old-style CRT cockpit which we rarely see these days. The full circle compass rose and heading bug I normally have below my PFD wasn't there. So the original 070 heading; then the later 120; and 160 headings; were all off-range to one side or the other of the narrow arc at the top of the old-style ND. I think there are two basic lessons here:1) Although just a technique; the PF pre-takeoff announcement of intended route & altitude is very valuable to refresh and clarify what we're about to do. It affords a chance to get any confusion settled while the brakes are still parked. And to operationalize the separate clearance factoids into a flyable sequence of planned actions. 2) While hand-flying; hand-fly. That means hands on throttles and yoke; period. If your hands are on the flight path controls your mind is on the flight path. If your hands are doing administrative stuff; even flight path-related administrative stuff; so is your mind. That's not good.
B757 First Officer described the confusion that developed after takeoff when the JFK Tower Controller said 'start your right turn now' when a left turn was required to comply with their PDC instructions.