Narrative:

We were cleared for takeoff from runway 24 at teb to fly the ruudy 2 departure; with radar vectors to coate intersection after the ruudy fix. The line up was fine with both pilot and copilot HSI's matching runway heading and each other. The route was loaded and available in two GPS units aboard the aircraft. After rotation we complied with the noise abatement procedure while flying a 240 degree heading to intercept the 260 degree course to wentz intersection. When the 260 degree course was intercepted; the autopilot navigation mode was engaged. Upon passing wentz in a short 3 miles; the air traffic controllers gave us a climb to 5000 ft MSL while intercepting the 280 degree course to tasca intersection 2 miles away. That is when we noticed the pilot side HSI heading was 30 degrees off from the copilot side heading and the GPS heading. We got to 5000 ft MSL as quickly as possible to level the aircraft to obtain an accurate compass reading. As we sorted out what the correct heading was we passed the ruudy fix where we were supposed to maintain a 280 degree heading until advised. Because I had the autopilot in navigation mode and had the coate fix as the next waypoint. The aircraft turned to approximately a 300 degree heading before I noticed the turn. While I was turning back to a 280 degree heading and confirming our last clearance with the copilot; the controller questioned our heading and position. We did not yet have an answer as to our definitive heading. We sorted out the pilot side HSI slaving had failed but the GPS was following the correct course. The teb departure procedures get more complicated every year. This was an instance where despite my best efforts to keep up with a turbine aircraft on a departure that has 4 course changes and 2 altitude changes in 14 miles; a course deviation occurred while trying to determine what our true heading was. As the captain; I did not get a chance to get an explanation to the questioning controller as we were one; possibly two; controllers down the line before all of our problems were resolved. I realize there is a lot of traffic in the new york city area; but just straightening some of the course on the departure procedures a little bit would drastically reduce cockpit workload.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C441 Captain experiences an HSI malfunction during the RUUDY2 departure from TEB leading to a track deviation after RUUDY.

Narrative: We were cleared for takeoff from Runway 24 at TEB to fly the RUUDY 2 Departure; with radar vectors to COATE intersection after the RUUDY fix. The line up was fine with both pilot and copilot HSI's matching runway heading and each other. The route was loaded and available in two GPS units aboard the aircraft. After rotation we complied with the noise abatement procedure while flying a 240 degree heading to intercept the 260 degree course to WENTZ intersection. When the 260 degree course was intercepted; the autopilot NAV mode was engaged. Upon passing WENTZ in a short 3 miles; the air traffic controllers gave us a climb to 5000 FT MSL while intercepting the 280 degree course to TASCA intersection 2 miles away. That is when we noticed the pilot side HSI heading was 30 degrees off from the copilot side heading and the GPS heading. We got to 5000 FT MSL as quickly as possible to level the aircraft to obtain an accurate compass reading. As we sorted out what the correct heading was we passed the RUUDY fix where we were supposed to maintain a 280 degree heading until advised. Because I had the autopilot in NAV mode and had the COATE fix as the next waypoint. The aircraft turned to approximately a 300 degree heading before I noticed the turn. While I was turning back to a 280 degree heading and confirming our last clearance with the copilot; the controller questioned our heading and position. We did not yet have an answer as to our definitive heading. We sorted out the pilot side HSI slaving had failed but the GPS was following the correct course. The TEB Departure procedures get more complicated every year. This was an instance where despite my best efforts to keep up with a turbine aircraft on a departure that has 4 course changes and 2 altitude changes in 14 miles; a course deviation occurred while trying to determine what our true heading was. As the Captain; I did not get a chance to get an explanation to the questioning controller as we were one; possibly two; controllers down the line before all of our problems were resolved. I realize there is a lot of traffic in the New York City area; but just straightening some of the course on the departure procedures a little bit would drastically reduce cockpit workload.

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.