A C172 on an instrument training flight suffered the transitory loss of the directional and attitude...

Attributes
ACN	942704
Time
Date	201104
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Climb
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Compass (HSI/ETC)
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 22.7 Flight Crew Total 130 Flight Crew Type 50
Person 2
Function	Instructor Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 30 Flight Crew Total 3402 Flight Crew Type 2000
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

Narrative:

After departure and in our initial turn to a 320 heading; ATC asked us where we were going. At this moment we noticed that while in a standard rate turn our directional gyro (dg) was not working. It was frozen and we had actually already done about a 180 [degree turn]. At this point we let them know that we lost our dg and were going to head back to departure airport. In this time period we lost the attitude indicator as well. It was showing a 60 degree bank while we were straight and level. At this point; since we were in hard IMC conditions we declared an emergency to get us back to our departure airport. While enroute; the controller asked us if we wanted to head to ZZZ where conditions were more favorable; 700 ovc and 7 1/2 visibility. We decided to head to ZZZ and do the GPS [approach]. About 10 minutes from ZZZ the dg and attitude indicator began to function a little better and we landed safely. The part that does not make sense is that we had vacuum pressure. At no point did it show we had no vacuum; but we lost two of the instruments associated with the system. If the conditions had been much better it would not have been as much of an issue. The safest thing at that point was to declare the emergency and make sure we got back on the ground safely.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A C172 on an instrument training flight suffered the transitory loss of the directional and attitude gyros while in IMC.

Narrative: After departure and in our initial turn to a 320 heading; ATC asked us where we were going. At this moment we noticed that while in a standard rate turn our directional gyro (DG) was not working. It was frozen and we had actually already done about a 180 [degree turn]. At this point we let them know that we lost our DG and were going to head back to departure airport. In this time period we lost the attitude indicator as well. It was showing a 60 degree bank while we were straight and level. At this point; since we were in hard IMC conditions we declared an emergency to get us back to our departure airport. While enroute; the Controller asked us if we wanted to head to ZZZ where conditions were more favorable; 700 OVC and 7 1/2 visibility. We decided to head to ZZZ and do the GPS [approach]. About 10 minutes from ZZZ the DG and attitude indicator began to function a little better and we landed safely. The part that does not make sense is that we had vacuum pressure. At no point did it show we had no vacuum; but we lost two of the instruments associated with the system. If the conditions had been much better it would not have been as much of an issue. The safest thing at that point was to declare the emergency and make sure we got back on the ground safely.

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.