A da-20 first officer assumed control of the aircraft in IMC after the elderly pilot flying lost sit...

Narrative:

While flying with my 80+ year old; air force trained; employer; who was hand flying in the left seat; we entered clouds after takeoff at around 2;000 ft MSL. When assigned a heading of 340 degrees; the pilot flying lost situational awareness requiring my intervention (while climbing; bank exceeded 50 degrees with a nose down pitch of around 10 degrees). Once under control we completed our climbing left turn with a clearance to 8;000 ft. As we approached 8;000 ft we received a frequency change; after I tuned the new frequency and prior to checking on I noticed our altitude bust. We were subsequently cleared to 11;000 ft; where we broke out of clouds on top. The remainder of the flight was uneventful. I've flown with my employer on many occasions; over 9 years; and in various flight conditions without incident; I consider him a good pilot; and was surprised at this unexpected loss of control on this occasion. We have discussed the event; but I'm very embarrassed about our altitude bust; fortunately there was not a resulting traffic conflict; and I would like to thank the air traffic controller for his understanding and professionalism.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A DA-20 First Officer assumed control of the aircraft in IMC after the elderly pilot flying lost situational awareness during a climbing turn and banked in excess of 50 degrees; 10 degrees nose down.

Narrative: While flying with my 80+ year old; Air Force trained; employer; who was hand flying in the left seat; we entered clouds after takeoff at around 2;000 FT MSL. When assigned a heading of 340 degrees; the pilot flying lost situational awareness requiring my intervention (while climbing; bank exceeded 50 degrees with a nose down pitch of around 10 degrees). Once under control we completed our climbing left turn with a clearance to 8;000 FT. As we approached 8;000 FT we received a frequency change; after I tuned the new frequency and prior to checking on I noticed our altitude bust. We were subsequently cleared to 11;000 FT; where we broke out of clouds on top. The remainder of the flight was uneventful. I've flown with my employer on many occasions; over 9 years; and in various flight conditions without incident; I consider him a good pilot; and was surprised at this unexpected loss of control on this occasion. We have discussed the event; but I'm very embarrassed about our altitude bust; fortunately there was not a resulting traffic conflict; and I would like to thank the Air Traffic Controller for his understanding and professionalism.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1189419
Time
Date	201407
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	DA20 Undifferentiated
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Climb
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 20 Flight Crew Total 25000 Flight Crew Type 800
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Clearance Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control

A da-20 first officer assumed control of the aircraft in IMC after the elderly pilot flying lost situational awareness during a climbing turn and banked in excess of 50 degrees; 10 degrees nose down.