Corporate pilot reported turning the wrong direction to a heading issued by ATC. The pilot stated th...

Attributes
ACN	1741275
Time
Date	202004
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Tower
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Small Aircraft
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Climb
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

Narrative:

While taxiing out to xx at ZZZ; tower gave us our takeoff clearance with a turn to heading 310. The instructor non-flying pilot I was with read back the clearance saying left turn to 310. After departure the non-flying pilot bugged a left turn to 310; and I began the left turn. When we checked in with departure they notified us it was supposed to be a right turn; and instructed us to stop the turn. I'm not aware of any traffic conflicts that resulted from the turn. The non-flying pilot is confident he heard left turn; I'm only confident I heard him read back left turn.I'm new to the airplane and have not flown much in the past few months due to the covid-19 virus pandemic. The left turn to 310 off of xx seemed odd at the time; but due to the decreased air traffic I did not question it; as I should have. I'm not sure if it was pilot or ATC error; but I felt a safety report was warranted.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Corporate pilot reported turning the wrong direction to a heading issued by ATC. The pilot stated they were new to the airplane and had not flown much recently due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Narrative: While taxiing out to XX at ZZZ; Tower gave us our takeoff clearance with a turn to heading 310. The instructor non-flying pilot I was with read back the clearance saying left turn to 310. After departure the non-flying pilot bugged a left turn to 310; and I began the left turn. When we checked in with departure they notified us it was supposed to be a right turn; and instructed us to stop the turn. I'm not aware of any traffic conflicts that resulted from the turn. The non-flying pilot is confident he heard left turn; I'm only confident I heard him read back left turn.I'm new to the airplane and have not flown much in the past few months due to the COVID-19 virus pandemic. The left turn to 310 off of XX seemed odd at the time; but due to the decreased air traffic I did not question it; as I should have. I'm not sure if it was pilot or ATC error; but I felt a safety report was warranted.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.

Corporate pilot reported turning the wrong direction to a heading issued by ATC. The pilot stated they were new to the airplane and had not flown much recently due to the covid-19 pandemic.