Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Commercial
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 30; Flight Crew Total 950; Flight Crew Type 350
Situational Awareness; Time Pressure
Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Human Factors; Weather
A recent Call Back issue reminded me of a wind shear/downburst event I experienced during initial climb-out on a training mission. The purpose of the flight was for my instrument student to fly some approaches nearby to prepare for his practical exam. I knew some weather was moving in from the northwest; but it was an isolated cell and I wasn't concerned about it posing much of an issue with our flight. However; it was getting close to the airport and if we didn't depart soon; we would have to wait it out; probably for 20-30 minutes as it passed over the airport. I thought it was farther away than it was; and that we would safely be off the ground and climbing out well before it reached the airport. The initial takeoff roll and liftoff proceeded normally; but just as we broke ground; I saw we would be flying directly into some rain. It was too late to abort the takeoff at this point; so our only option was to continue the climb-out. As soon as we hit the rain; we got rocked by some pretty solid turbulence; and after a few seconds of watching my student on the controls; I determined that we must be in a downdraft and I took control of the aircraft to try and get us out of the rain and downdraft quickly. I could see clear VFR conditions just to the right of our flight path; and that's where I pointed the aircraft while carefully managing our airspeed and climb rate. In retrospect; we should have waited out the cell as soon as I saw it was closer than I expected; even though I felt it was still far enough away. There's always a balance between trying to keep a flight lesson moving along efficiently; and keeping the flight safe. In this case; a delay would have been better; even if it was just to watch the cell pass safely by the airport.
PA28 flight instructor reported encountering downdrafts and turbulence after takeoff with a student on an instrument practice flight.