Narrative:

I was taking off from rw 14L - tower gave me a heading of 040 and 'expedite as soon as possible'. I set the heading before takeoff; at about 300 ft AGL I engaged autopilot. At about 500 ft AGL I pushed the heading button on the ap. The plane began banking left as expected. At about 1000 ft AGL I was in clouds and on my mfd I saw I was directly heading for an area of heavy rain and asked if I could deviate to the right. I was advised of 070; I turned my heading button to 070. I noticed that my plane seemed to be pitched too high and I used my cws (control wheel steering) button to lower the pitch of the plane. I lowered the pitch but noted that I was beginning to bank to the right at a rather steep bank - I couldn't immediately determine what had happened; but then noticed and heard my autopilot annunciator started flashing and an alarm sounded. I realized that my autopilot was not working and I was far to the right of the 070 that I had been told. I was reminded by departure of the 070 heading - I responded to the 070; but did mention that I was disoriented. Once I realized that the ap was malfunctioning I concentrated on getting the plane back on its proper heading - I got the plane under good control; but had turned to the right and was on an approximately 325 heading. I moved to the right until I was back at 070. I then had an uneventful climb. Departure asked me to call a number for a possible 'deviation'.there was no question I deviated. My plane is a '07 cessna in great condition. I had never experienced a problem with the ap before so it took me a few moments to identify the problem - once identified I got the plane back into control. I continued my flight without difficulty. On my return flight I was level at 10;000. I was going through some clouds and rain when the ap annunciator again signaled a problem. I have been in contact with avionics manufacturer and they will be re-programming the autopilot as there was probably a 'system failure'. This has been scheduled.what I learned is that while I need to look at the mfd and weather; I cannot rely on the ap to always do what I have set it to do. Also even though I was asked to expedite my turn to 040 from 140; I would wait until I was higher at 1000 ft AGL before I push the heading button and start my turn which is my usual pattern - I wonder if I was putting too much stress on my plane given the rather significant turn that was requested. I have not had previous problems maintaining the vectors assigned by tower or departure.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: The pilot of a C182 with an advanced navigation system departed IMC and relied on an autopilot; which malfunctioned; to comply with a departure vector. The pilot became severely disoriented when the autopilot did not engage. The aircraft pitched up and turned while he became reoriented. A track deviation resulted.

Narrative: I was taking off from RW 14L - Tower gave me a heading of 040 and 'expedite as soon as possible'. I set the heading before takeoff; at about 300 FT AGL I engaged autopilot. At about 500 FT AGL I pushed the heading button on the AP. The plane began banking left as expected. At about 1000 FT AGL I was in clouds and on my MFD I saw I was directly heading for an area of heavy rain and asked if I could deviate to the right. I was advised of 070; I turned my heading button to 070. I noticed that my plane seemed to be pitched too high and I used my CWS (control wheel steering) button to lower the pitch of the plane. I lowered the pitch but noted that I was beginning to bank to the right at a rather steep bank - I couldn't immediately determine what had happened; but then noticed and heard my autopilot annunciator started flashing and an alarm sounded. I realized that my autopilot was not working and I was far to the right of the 070 that I had been told. I was reminded by departure of the 070 heading - I responded to the 070; but did mention that I was disoriented. Once I realized that the AP was malfunctioning I concentrated on getting the plane back on its proper heading - I got the plane under good control; but had turned to the right and was on an approximately 325 heading. I moved to the right until I was back at 070. I then had an uneventful climb. Departure asked me to call a number for a possible 'deviation'.There was no question I deviated. My plane is a '07 Cessna in great condition. I had never experienced a problem with the AP before so it took me a few moments to identify the problem - once identified I got the plane back into control. I continued my flight without difficulty. On my return flight I was level at 10;000. I was going through some clouds and rain when the AP annunciator again signaled a problem. I have been in contact with avionics manufacturer and they will be re-programming the autopilot as there was probably a 'system failure'. This has been scheduled.What I learned is that while I need to look at the MFD and weather; I cannot rely on the AP to always do what I have set it to do. Also even though I was asked to expedite my turn to 040 from 140; I would wait until I was higher at 1000 FT AGL before I push the heading button and start my turn which is my usual pattern - I wonder if I was putting too much stress on my plane given the rather significant turn that was requested. I have not had previous problems maintaining the vectors assigned by tower or departure.

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.