Narrative:

We were in IMC conditions with light chop; had just finished deviating around weather and were headed direct dbq. Our speed was approximately .73 mach. Radar was on; autopilot and auto throttles engaged. The closest cell on radar was a moderate cell 12-15 miles off to our left. The light chop then went to moderate turbulence; the wind shifted around to our tail and the aircraft began a gradual descent below FL360. I immediately notified ATC that we encountered some moderate turbulence and the aircraft was descending and unable to hold FL360. The green pli [pitch limit indicator] appeared as the aircraft tried to pitch up to maintain altitude as the wind shifted. The flying pilot used tcs to lower the nose slightly so the aircraft would not pitch up any further and lose any more airspeed. ATC responded that descending a bit was fine as there were no aircraft below us. We lost a total of 300-400 ft. I notified him that we were climbing back to FL360 once the aircraft stabilized. The moderate turbulence lasted about 5 seconds. The rest of the flight was uneventful. I think the situation was handled properly by the flight crew. The only problem was a loss of altitude caused by the turbulence and shift in winds; causing a loss of airspeed; which was unavoidable.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An ERJ 170 flight crew got on the back side of the power curve while in turbulence associated with weather around which they were deviating and had to descend to regain lost airspeed. They returned to their clearance after regaining the lost airspeed.

Narrative: We were in IMC conditions with light chop; had just finished deviating around weather and were headed direct DBQ. Our speed was approximately .73 mach. Radar was on; autopilot and auto throttles engaged. The closest cell on radar was a moderate cell 12-15 miles off to our left. The light chop then went to moderate turbulence; the wind shifted around to our tail and the aircraft began a gradual descent below FL360. I immediately notified ATC that we encountered some moderate turbulence and the aircraft was descending and unable to hold FL360. The green PLI [Pitch Limit Indicator] appeared as the aircraft tried to pitch up to maintain altitude as the wind shifted. The flying pilot used TCS to lower the nose slightly so the aircraft would not pitch up any further and lose any more airspeed. ATC responded that descending a bit was fine as there were no aircraft below us. We lost a total of 300-400 FT. I notified him that we were climbing back to FL360 once the aircraft stabilized. The moderate turbulence lasted about 5 seconds. The rest of the flight was uneventful. I think the situation was handled properly by the flight crew. The only problem was a loss of altitude caused by the turbulence and shift in winds; causing a loss of airspeed; which was unavoidable.

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.