Md-80 first officer reported during climb the autopilot disconnected; the first officer's flight dir...

Narrative:

We departed on the STAR off of runway 25R. Passing through approximately 9;000 ft; the autopilot disengaged; first officer's (first officer) flight director disappeared; and first officer's flight mode annunciator (FMA) arm; roll; and pitch mode windows went blank. The captain's side was still working and we switched flight director (FD) selector operative system. We ran the QRH procedure for a blank FMA and after a few minutes the autopilot disengaged again and both flight directors and FMA blanked. We leveled off with ATC approval below rvsm airspace; and coordinated to return to the airport. While descending; the flight directors started working again. We landed uneventfully. This aircraft has multiple pieces of equipment in the cockpit that are different from the other aircraft in the fleet. Crews must maintain a vigilant crosscheck of these systems to ensure they are operating as expected. Differences in flight management techniques due to the lack of VNAV and different type of FMS controls should be thoroughly briefed prior to departure.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: MD-80 First Officer reported during climb the autopilot disconnected; the First Officer's flight director disappeared; and the flight mode annunciator's ARM; ROLL; and PITCH mode windows went blank.

Narrative: We departed on the STAR off of Runway 25R. Passing through approximately 9;000 ft; the autopilot disengaged; First Officer's (FO) flight director disappeared; and FO's Flight Mode Annunciator (FMA) ARM; ROLL; and PITCH mode windows went blank. The Captain's side was still working and we switched Flight Director (FD) selector operative system. We ran the QRH procedure for a blank FMA and after a few minutes the autopilot disengaged again and both flight directors and FMA blanked. We leveled off with ATC approval below RVSM airspace; and coordinated to return to the airport. While descending; the flight directors started working again. We landed uneventfully. This aircraft has multiple pieces of equipment in the cockpit that are different from the other aircraft in the fleet. Crews must maintain a vigilant crosscheck of these systems to ensure they are operating as expected. Differences in flight management techniques due to the lack of VNAV and different type of FMS controls should be thoroughly briefed prior to departure.

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	1331079
Time
Date	201506
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	MD-80 Series (DC-9-80) Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Flight Director
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe

Md-80 first officer reported during climb the autopilot disconnected; the first officer's flight director disappeared; and the flight mode annunciator's arm; roll; and pitch mode windows went blank.