Narrative:

Approximately 10 miles before reaching carpt; atlanta center assigned us 'present heading.' we complied with instructions. The captain was flying and centered the heading with our current heading and selected heading mode. I saw the heading command appear on the right of the cyan annunciator on pfd and move to the left side; replacing the FMS command. Several miles later climbing through approximately FL240; we saw an aircraft on the TCAS outside the 10 mile ring descending approximately 600 ft above us. As we were about to query ATC and the captain was getting ready to turn; ATC advised us to turn right 20 degrees. The aircraft changed back from yellow TA to cyan. ATC asked if we remembered him giving us 'present heading.' I replied yes; that we had been on heading mode since before carpt. He later gave us a phone number to call when we got on the ground in because we had been involved in a possible course deviation.the winds shifted twice between atl and bna. At 10;000 ft; the winds were 280/10 KTS. After we were given a heading and continued our climb; the winds shifting to out of the northeast. The winds in the mid-20;000s were 030/27-35 KTS. These winds kept us close to the original course we were supposed to have after carpt. We were not right of the original course as we should have been in a calm wind scenario. I do not know if the controller did not have the same wind information or did not plan on the wind correction when assigning us the heading. As we continued on; the winds shifted back to the northwest; between 280 and 300.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ700 crew reports being given a heading during climb. Some time later; passing FL210 a traffic conflict develops requiring Controller intervention. The crew believes the heading change issued by ATC had little effect on track due a wind shift during climb.

Narrative: Approximately 10 miles before reaching CARPT; Atlanta Center assigned us 'present heading.' We complied with instructions. The Captain was flying and centered the heading with our current heading and selected heading mode. I saw the HDG command appear on the right of the cyan annunciator on PFD and move to the left side; replacing the FMS command. Several miles later climbing through approximately FL240; we saw an aircraft on the TCAS outside the 10 mile ring descending approximately 600 FT above us. As we were about to query ATC and the Captain was getting ready to turn; ATC advised us to turn right 20 degrees. The aircraft changed back from yellow TA to cyan. ATC asked if we remembered him giving us 'present heading.' I replied yes; that we had been on heading mode since before CARPT. He later gave us a phone number to call when we got on the ground in because we had been involved in a possible course deviation.The winds shifted twice between ATL and BNA. At 10;000 FT; the winds were 280/10 KTS. After we were given a heading and continued our climb; the winds shifting to out of the northeast. The winds in the mid-20;000s were 030/27-35 KTS. These winds kept us close to the original course we were supposed to have after CARPT. We were not right of the original course as we should have been in a calm wind scenario. I do not know if the Controller did not have the same wind information or did not plan on the wind correction when assigning us the heading. As we continued on; the winds shifted back to the northwest; between 280 and 300.

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.