Citationjet (C525/C526) - CJ I / II / III / IV
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified; Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument
Air Traffic Control Non Radar 19; Air Traffic Control Radar 19; Flight Crew Last 90 Days 40; Flight Crew Total 3066; Flight Crew Type 1650
Troubleshooting; Situational Awareness; Workload
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport; Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft
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.
C525a Captain reported loss of lateral control shortly after departure and returned to departure airport with minimal control.