Date: 201604
Local time of day: 1201-1800
Location: AUS.Airport, TX
Flight conditions: VMC
Weather elements / visibility: Haze / Smoke; 6
Light: Daylight
Aircraft: Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Operator: Personal
Operating under: Part 91
Mission: Personal
Flight phase: Initial Approach
Airspace: Class E AUS
ATC / advisory: TRACON AUS
Reporter organization: Personal
Reporter function: Single Pilot; Pilot Flying
Reporter qualification: Flight Crew Private
Human factors: Confusion; Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown
Anomaly: Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Detector: Person Air Traffic Control
When detected: In-flight
Result: Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Contributing factors: Human Factors; Procedure; Aircraft
Primary problem: Human Factors

Narrative: I was on a solo cross country to Austin TX. It was my first time flying solo into the Austin Class C (from which I departed the day before). Conditions were marginal VFR the whole way. I used Foreflight for my weather briefing and waited for departure until all airports along my route indicated Marginal VFR or VFR. Visibility remained around 3 - 6 miles along the route. For most of the route I stayed at 2;000 MSL to remain 500 below clouds (with no clearly visible could base). Marginal VFR is certainly somewhat stressful - added to the fact that it is a first solo into the Class C. I made contact with Austin Approach South around 25 miles from the Class C airspace; got my squawk code and confirmed radar contact. Shortly after first making contact the controller alerted me that I had traffic approaching from my right (approaching from the east.) He asked if I could climb to 2;500. Clouds in the Austin area were 3;000 or higher (although very hazy). I obliged. I use a Stratus receiver and could see the traffic on my receiver. Sure enough; a few minutes later I saw the traffic (a low wing piston single) fly past about 1;000 below me. Kudos to the controller. I felt well cared for. I reported the traffic in sight. Some minutes later; the controller asked me to turn to 020; but he did not say the DIRECTION of turn. Had he said 'turn RIGHT to 020' I would not be writing this report. As it turned out; my heading indicator had drifted off quite a bit from the wet compass. I had flown most of the route using a basic auto pilot - simply adjusting the heading bug to keep my plane firmly on the track line on my Ipad (without paying much attention to the actual heading and variance from the wet compass.)I suddenly found myself in a somewhat stressful situation. The heading indicator did not line up with the wet compass and I had to make a heading adjustment as instructed by ATC. Instead of calmly getting this sorted out; I (wrongly) dubbed in that the controller is trying to get me out of harms way again and I turned 220 - heading west. The radio was very busy and I figured 'he has me on radar and he must have good reason for getting me away from the airport.' (In retrospect; all the controller wanted to do was set me up slightly east of the airport for a left hand downwind to runway 17 left.) After a few minutes the controller came back with something along the lines of 'you are heading west. Do you have a gyro problem? You are getting close to San Marcos airspace.' We had a few exchanges back and forth and my mistake became apparent as I finally turned around to 020. The next instruction was 'turn right 20 degrees'. Easy to understand. I soon found myself set up east of the airport and cleared to land on Runway 17 left. I heard another plane on the frequency saying that they have to overshoot their approach as 'they were set up too high for the approach' or something along those lines. Once back on the tower frequency; that plane asked the controller if the Approach controller was in training. There was some exchange that implied he was.I had very good situational awareness on my iPad as I approached the airport. As I said; if the word RIGHT was used I would have seen where he was going with this. I dubbed in he had some traffic avoidance agenda and in my somewhat stressful state I just wanted to follow instructions without question. A 'we're setting you up to the east of the airport' may have helped. For my part; I could have admitted that my heading indicator was off and that I was a little confused. Anyway; it all ended well and I know the controller did his best. He certainly kept me safe. I learned from it. I hope that the importance and value of simply adding the direction of turn with every heading indication given is stressed by this report.




Synopsis: C172 pilot reported becoming confused when issued a turn to 020 degrees by AUS Approach during a VFR cross country flight. He had been using an iPad for navigation and turning the autopilot heading bug to stay on course but not adjusting the DG to the wet compass. When the heading was issued confusion reigned.