Narrative:

IFR student at the controls for GPS approach with partial panel. Student suddenly lost control of the aircraft; I suspect with very large banking and the aircraft went very quickly from 3;000 feet MSL to 600 feet MSL. With airspeed at red line. Cfii took control of the aircraft; stopped the descent and climbed back up to 3;000 feet MSL. The attitude indicator and directional gyro instruments had tumbled and were unusable. We were vectored again for the approach and landed safely. The cfii's ipad resting on his left knee was found after landing in the rear of the baggage area; about 7 feet distance. Incident was very scary and happened so fast. Cfii will no longer do partial panel in night or day IMC.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Pilot on partial panel GPS approach during a night IFR training flight lost control of the aircraft. Instructor regained control of the aircraft; was vectored for the approach and landed.

Narrative: IFR student at the controls for GPS approach with partial panel. Student suddenly lost control of the aircraft; I suspect with very large banking and the aircraft went very quickly from 3;000 feet MSL to 600 feet MSL. With airspeed at red line. CFII took control of the aircraft; stopped the descent and climbed back up to 3;000 feet MSL. The Attitude Indicator and Directional Gyro instruments had tumbled and were unusable. We were vectored again for the approach and landed safely. The CFII's iPad resting on his left knee was found after landing in the rear of the baggage area; about 7 feet distance. Incident was very scary and happened so fast. CFII will no longer do partial panel in night or day IMC.

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.