A319
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness; Workload
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Human Factors; Procedure
Departed 36C and issued heading by tower instead of BUCKL8 SID that we had briefed. This heading was given with instructions we would be joining the SID later. First Officer (FO) was flying pilot; hand flying and after given several headings by departure control; [was] cleared direct to a fix we could not understand and was not in the FMS. I asked for several read backs and FO pointed to a fix (CODGI) in the FMS and I assumed Controller was using a different pronunciation than I was used to. I read back CODGI; we selected CODGI; confirmed and activated. As aircraft was turning Controller said we weren't going to the fix and issued another heading for now what we understood was KATSE intersection. KATSE had dropped out of the database during the vectors. Controller then advised 'never mind' and cleared us further south on the SID to BUCKL. 1. Tower changing instructions at takeoff clearance...heading ....instead of RNAV departure.2. Vectors by departure control causing fix to drop out of database.3. FO hand flying put us in a higher workload4. Poor pronunciation/headset/radio transmission by departure control.5. Assuming I finally understood fix instead of getting phonetic spelling.6. Being familiar with CLT and assuming the fix was something given commonly instead of where we were cleared. Get a phonetic spelling when I can't understand a transmission. Which I always do in unfamiliar areas but flying out of CLT so many years lead to complacency.
A319 Captain reported a track deviation resulted departing CLT when a fix name was misunderstood.