First officer departing gmu VFR to the north as a lifeguard flight is admonished for turning east by...

Narrative:

We arrived gmu with the medical team leaving shortly thereafter. The medical team returned and we planned for our departure. We attempted to obtain our clearance with atlanta center on the frequency we left in the radio during our arrival before we left the ramp. We were unable to raise them. [We] performed normal start and taxi. Prior to our taking runway 01 we tried to obtain our clearance again; still no reply. We announced our departure intentions on the CTAF frequency and departed runway 01 in VMC conditions heading north. Immediately after cleaning up the aircraft we contacted atlanta center to obtain our clearance again. At this time we were issued a squawk code and continued our climb to 2;500 ft and 250 KTS and also continuing a turn toward destination. We were very quickly handed off to another atlanta center controller and given an immediate turn to a heading of 160 degrees. The controller then began to scold us stating we should never; never make a turn toward the east when departing gmu; shortly there after we were given a phone number to call for a possible pilot deviation. The entire flight was conducted as a life guard flight and the leg from gmu being conducted as a time critical life guard flight as we had a human heart and medical team on board.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: First Officer departing GMU VFR to the north as a Lifeguard flight is admonished for turning east by a ZTL Controller.

Narrative: We arrived GMU with the medical team leaving shortly thereafter. The medical team returned and we planned for our departure. We attempted to obtain our clearance with Atlanta Center on the frequency we left in the radio during our arrival before we left the ramp. We were unable to raise them. [We] performed normal start and taxi. Prior to our taking Runway 01 we tried to obtain our clearance again; still no reply. We announced our departure intentions on the CTAF frequency and departed Runway 01 in VMC conditions heading north. Immediately after cleaning up the aircraft we contacted Atlanta Center to obtain our clearance again. At this time we were issued a Squawk code and continued our climb to 2;500 FT and 250 KTS and also continuing a turn toward destination. We were very quickly handed off to another Atlanta Center Controller and given an immediate turn to a heading of 160 degrees. The Controller then began to scold us stating we should never; never make a turn toward the east when departing GMU; shortly there after we were given a phone number to call for a possible pilot deviation. The entire flight was conducted as a Life Guard Flight and the leg from GMU being conducted as a Time Critical Life Guard Flight as we had a Human Heart and medical team on board.

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.

Attributes
ACN	976846
Time
Date	201108
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	GMU.Airport
State Reference	GA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Dawn
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Light Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 135
Flight Phase	Initial Climb
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Multiengine
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 30 Flight Crew Total 3900 Flight Crew Type 1100
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Other / Unknown Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

First officer departing gmu VFR to the north as a lifeguard flight is admonished for turning east by a ZTL controller.