A PA34 pilot suffered temporary loss of control due to a suspected encounter with windshear while in...

Attributes
ACN	888864
Time
Date	201005
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	PA-34-200T Turbo Seneca II
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 35 Flight Crew Total 4915 Flight Crew Type 677
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

Narrative:

I was flying in IMC at night at an altitude of 5000 feet in light rain. The airplane pitched over and started to roll left so abruptly the auto pilot disengaged. I leveled the wings and started a climb of approximately 400 feet per minute. About 15 seconds into the climb the rate of climb accelerated to over 2000 feet per minute. As I was recovering center called and asked about my altitude and I told him I had a problem and was returning to my assigned altitude. I called him back and told him I was off my heading and was returning to my original heading. I believe I flew into a down windshear immediately followed by an up windshear. The auto pilot functioned properly the remainder of the flight.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A PA34 pilot suffered temporary loss of control due to a suspected encounter with windshear while in cruise flight.

Narrative: I was flying in IMC at night at an altitude of 5000 feet in light rain. The airplane pitched over and started to roll left so abruptly the auto pilot disengaged. I leveled the wings and started a climb of approximately 400 feet per minute. About 15 seconds into the climb the rate of climb accelerated to over 2000 feet per minute. As I was recovering Center called and asked about my altitude and I told him I had a problem and was returning to my assigned altitude. I called him back and told him I was off my heading and was returning to my original heading. I believe I flew into a down windshear immediately followed by an up windshear. The auto pilot functioned properly the remainder of the flight.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.