Narrative:

I was departing on an IFR flight. I was assigned a heading of 360 degrees and an altitude of 1;600. After rollout on runway I began a normal climb maintaining runway heading of 320. Autopilot was set to maintain an altitude of 1;600 and heading of 320 but was not yet engaged. My plan was to engage autopilot and turn to assigned heading of 360. Aircraft entered cloud base at 400 AGL and I engaged the autopilot. Autopilot did not respond and during the process; aircraft drifted left of course to an approximate heading of 240 in IMC. While attempting to determine the reason that the autopilot did not engage; the aircraft entered a steep bank to the left at around 600 AGL and I was finally able to get the aircraft level and under control. Then I was able to resume climb and turn to my assigned heading of 360. By that time the tower had cancelled the takeoff clearance of an air carrier jet that had just begun its takeoff roll. The cancellation was due to the fact that my aircraft had deviated into the jet's departure airspace. After approximately five minutes of 'hand' flying the aircraft and getting everything stabilized and under control; I realized that during reviewing takeoff checklist procedures; I failed to press the 'test' button on the kfc-150 autopilot which prevented it from engaging. Once I realized that error; I immediately pressed the 'test' button; reset the autopilot settings to the correct altitude; heading and rate of climb; and I was now able to continue the flight without incident. The root cause of the problem (human performance) was my failure to perform the checklist functions in exact order as on the checklist. By jumping ahead to the next item; I failed to go back to the missed item. [I] will not do that again.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A PA46 pilot departing IFR had failed to properly preflight his autopilot and; when engaged it failed to comply with the altitude and heading selections as expected. The heading drifted some 80 degrees left of the intended course before corrective action was initiated. An air carrier departure from the airport was cancelled by ATC due to encroachment into its cleared airspace.

Narrative: I was departing on an IFR flight. I was assigned a heading of 360 degrees and an altitude of 1;600. After rollout on runway I began a normal climb maintaining runway heading of 320. Autopilot was set to maintain an altitude of 1;600 and heading of 320 but was not yet engaged. My plan was to engage autopilot and turn to assigned heading of 360. Aircraft entered cloud base at 400 AGL and I engaged the autopilot. Autopilot did not respond and during the process; aircraft drifted left of course to an approximate heading of 240 in IMC. While attempting to determine the reason that the autopilot did not engage; the aircraft entered a steep bank to the left at around 600 AGL and I was finally able to get the aircraft level and under control. Then I was able to resume climb and turn to my assigned heading of 360. By that time the Tower had cancelled the takeoff clearance of an air carrier jet that had just begun its takeoff roll. The cancellation was due to the fact that my aircraft had deviated into the jet's departure airspace. After approximately five minutes of 'hand' flying the aircraft and getting everything stabilized and under control; I realized that during reviewing takeoff checklist procedures; I failed to press the 'test' button on the KFC-150 autopilot which prevented it from engaging. Once I realized that error; I immediately pressed the 'test' button; reset the autopilot settings to the correct altitude; heading and rate of climb; and I was now able to continue the flight without incident. The root cause of the problem (human performance) was my failure to perform the checklist functions in EXACT ORDER as on the checklist. By jumping ahead to the next item; I failed to go back to the missed item. [I] will not do that again.

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.