SR22
Flight Crew Private; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 35; Flight Crew Total 1200; Flight Crew Type 1200
Human-Machine Interface; Physiological - Other
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Aircraft Equipment Problem Dissipated; Flight Crew Regained Aircraft Control; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Human Factors; Weather; Aircraft
While flying on a direct flight to FFT I encountered severe turbulence; unexpected and un-forecast. The severity of the turbulence kicked off the autopilot and disrupted my MFD page alignment; thus rendering heading bug useless. When I regrouped I felt like I was in a steep climb; but was actually descending at 1;500 feet/min. Then hit heading bug/heading and altitude hold instinctively as a matter of regrouping. With the heading bug not working was forced to recover by hand and was also picking up rime ice. Shortly after recovering and flying requested course and getting back to requested altitude I was cleared back to destination. The GPS/autopilot and altitude capture worked as it should and continued without incident the rest of the way to FFT. Have never had autopilot kick off or lost MFD alignment.
SR22 pilot experiences severe turbulence at 8;000 FT; resulting in autopilot disengagement and loss of heading reference for the MFD. The autopilot would not engage and recovery from a descending turn is initiated by hand.