M20TN pilot reported becoming disoriented when encountering turbulence creating an unusual attitude ...

Narrative:

When level at flight level 230 I encountered an area of moderate turbulence. I knew I was passing through an area of weather based on nexrad data displayed on the G1000 mfd. At that altitude I was initially over the top of the weather in and out of a cirrus appearing cloud layer. ATC was particularly busy at this time with landing and departing traffic from las vegas and aircraft requesting variances due to this area of weather. While in IMC; when checking my engine egt status I inadvertently touched the autopilot switch; due to my arm movement in turbulence; on the panel turning off the auto pilot. The aircraft was immediately put into an unusual position. With the moderate to now occasional severe turbulence I was having difficult time re-orienting my position and situational awareness. During this period; I was unable to maintain altitude assignment by ATC. I was given a block altitude assignment by ATC to help with the situation. In addition; I was unable to maintain directional control. The physical effects of turbulence and disorientation had a significant disorienting result. Another point of my concentration was to avoid over stressing the airframe in the turbulent conditions. One factor that I felt; in retrospect; was contributing to this difficulty was the synthetic vision capability of the G1000. Though an excellent feature in general flight conditions it seemed to add to my disorientation as there was no clear horizon to identify with on the pfd. The horizon line on the garmin pfd is thin and I did not appreciate that very well in these conditions. The flight director feature was not something I was able to appreciate in these conditions as well. My take away on this experience is to be better prepared for changing over to hand control from autopilot; work on improving my use of the G1000 system features for orientation; consider weather conditions and requesting variances of direction and altitude for avoidance of potential turbulent conditions despite communications congestion.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: M20TN pilot reported becoming disoriented when encountering turbulence creating an unusual attitude and inability to maintain directional control. Pilot reported no clear horizon on Garmin 1000 display.

Narrative: When level at flight level 230 I encountered an area of moderate turbulence. I knew I was passing through an area of weather based on NEXRAD data displayed on the G1000 MFD. At that altitude I was initially over the top of the weather in and out of a cirrus appearing cloud layer. ATC was particularly busy at this time with landing and departing traffic from Las Vegas and aircraft requesting variances due to this area of weather. While in IMC; when checking my engine EGT status I inadvertently touched the autopilot switch; due to my arm movement in turbulence; on the panel turning off the auto pilot. The aircraft was immediately put into an unusual position. With the moderate to now occasional severe turbulence I was having difficult time re-orienting my position and situational awareness. During this period; I was unable to maintain altitude assignment by ATC. I was given a block altitude assignment by ATC to help with the situation. In addition; I was unable to maintain directional control. The physical effects of turbulence and disorientation had a significant disorienting result. Another point of my concentration was to avoid over stressing the airframe in the turbulent conditions. One factor that I felt; in retrospect; was contributing to this difficulty was the synthetic vision capability of the G1000. Though an excellent feature in general flight conditions it seemed to add to my disorientation as there was no clear horizon to identify with on the PFD. The horizon line on the Garmin PFD is thin and I did not appreciate that very well in these conditions. The flight director feature was not something I was able to appreciate in these conditions as well. My take away on this experience is to be better prepared for changing over to hand control from autopilot; work on improving my use of the G1000 system features for orientation; consider weather conditions and requesting variances of direction and altitude for avoidance of potential turbulent conditions despite communications congestion.

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	1531783
Time
Date	201803
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZLA.ARTCC
State Reference	CA
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	M-20 TN Acclaim
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 15 Flight Crew Total 2238 Flight Crew Type 1688
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Track / Heading All Types Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

M20TN pilot reported becoming disoriented when encountering turbulence creating an unusual attitude and inability to maintain directional control. Pilot reported no clear horizon on garmin 1000 display.