Narrative:

I preflighted the aircraft and did not find anything unusual. I started the aircraft and did the required checks (I did miss the manual slew for the ahars [attitude heading reference system] on the right side. It was in the manual position). I turned the avionics on; waited for a moment; then started taxiing. Before I got off the FBO ramp and onto the taxiway I noticed that my right side ahars was still spooling up. I stopped before the taxiway and allowed the ahars to catch up. Once it appeared to be normal I got a taxi clarence started taxing for the runway. Once I got on the runway and was cleared to take off I started my taxi roll. I had landed on the same runway three days before so the heading bug was still on runway heading. I took off as normal and was given a heading. I reached down and turned the heading bug with no response the heading bug was frozen. In addition to the heading bug not responding in anyway; the flight control yoke had to be held at a 50 deg angle to hold level flight. By having to hold the flight controls in such an awkward way I had extreme difficulty holding heading and altitude. I attempted to engage autopilot with just altitude on and that made the controls stiffen up. So I disengaged the autopilot. I was so overwhelmed I did not realize that the stiff feel was most likely just in elevation control as the autopilot had it. At that point I should have just tried to trim the roll out of the yoke. I was over controlling the aircraft to such a degree that departure control asked me if I needed assistance. I [notified them of the situation]. I continue to have extreme difficulty in maintaining heading and altitude (with massive swings in all directions) for what seemed like lifetime. At some point departure control asked me if I wanted to go into a hold or on vectors. (I had previously told departure control; when asked for fuel on board that I needed to burn fuel before I could land.) the controller vectored me around; during this time I trimmed the airplane and prepared for a GPS RNAV approach. I was able to land the aircraft without incident. I taxied back to the maintenance facility and shut the aircraft down. Explained to the maintenance facility what had just happened; they came out to look at the airplane. We turned the avionics back on; and we were not unable to duplicate the heading bug incident. We pulled the box for the heading bug control to see if the problem might be a loose connection; it was not. At some point later on we noticed that the slew switch on the right panel was in manual. However even with the right slew switch in manual; the heading bug was operating properly.some of the human factors are that we were in a hurry to make an appointment. I have had a higher than usual stress level with multiple family and work obligations. I now recognize that I should have used my early training to verify that the heading and heading bug matched on both sides prior to departure. Had I recognized the issue I could have aborted the departure until the issue was fixed.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C525a Captain reported loss of lateral control shortly after departure and returned to departure airport with minimal control.

Narrative: I preflighted the aircraft and did not find anything unusual. I started the aircraft and did the required checks (I did miss the manual slew for the AHARS [Attitude Heading Reference System] on the right side. It was in the Manual position). I turned the avionics on; waited for a moment; then started taxiing. Before I got off the FBO ramp and onto the taxiway I noticed that my right side AHARS was still spooling up. I stopped before the taxiway and allowed the AHARS to catch up. Once it appeared to be normal I got a taxi Clarence started taxing for the runway. Once I got on the runway and was cleared to take off I started my taxi roll. I had landed on the same runway three days before so the heading bug was still on runway heading. I took off as normal and was given a heading. I reached down and turned the heading bug with no response the heading bug was frozen. In addition to the heading bug not responding in anyway; the flight control yoke had to be held at a 50 deg angle to hold level flight. By having to hold the flight controls in such an awkward way I had extreme difficulty holding heading and altitude. I attempted to engage autopilot with just altitude on and that made the controls stiffen up. So I disengaged the autopilot. I was so overwhelmed I did not realize that the stiff feel was most likely just in elevation control as the autopilot had it. At that point I should have just tried to trim the roll out of the yoke. I was over controlling the aircraft to such a degree that departure control asked me if I needed assistance. I [notified them of the situation]. I continue to have extreme difficulty in maintaining heading and altitude (with massive swings in all directions) for what seemed like lifetime. At some point departure control asked me if I wanted to go into a hold or on vectors. (I had previously told departure control; when asked for fuel on board that I needed to burn fuel before I could land.) The controller vectored me around; during this time I trimmed the airplane and prepared for a GPS RNAV approach. I was able to land the aircraft without incident. I taxied back to the maintenance facility and shut the aircraft down. Explained to the maintenance facility what had just happened; they came out to look at the airplane. We turned the avionics back on; and we were not unable to duplicate the heading bug incident. We pulled the box for the heading bug control to see if the problem might be a loose connection; it was not. At some point later on we noticed that the slew switch on the right panel was in manual. However even with the right slew switch in manual; the heading bug was operating properly.Some of the human factors are that we were in a hurry to make an appointment. I have had a higher than usual stress level with multiple family and work obligations. I now recognize that I should have used my early training to verify that the heading and heading bug matched on both sides prior to departure. Had I recognized the issue I could have aborted the departure until the issue was fixed.

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.