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.

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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.