Baron 58 pilot reported complete avionics failure in IMC during cruise. Pilot regained temporary use of some avionics and continued to destination.

Date: 2025-05 · Aircraft: Baron 58/58TC · Phase: cruise

Anomalies: aircraft-equipment-problem-critical|inflight-event-encounter-weather-turbulence

Synopsis

Baron 58 pilot reported complete avionics failure in IMC during cruise. Pilot regained temporary use of some avionics and continued to destination.

Narrative

A routine flight from ZZZ to ZZZ1 in the Barron B-58P I departed ZZZ at XA06 enroute to ZZZ1 on an IFR flight plan. The flight was routine to ZZZ1. I was south of ZZZ2 when ATC asked me to climb to 16000 feet which is the MEA to clear the mountains. Once i got to 16000 feet i started to clear the mountains when I heard my autopilot clicked off. I glanced at the autopilot and saw that the screen went black. A few seconds later my Garmin 750; 650 and second audio panel was also completely black. I took ahold of the airplane with the yoke and started to hand fly the airplane. I looked over at my Garmin 500TXI and it was also black. I started with the circuit breaker panel to see if anything was popped. After doing some looking I noticed that all the avionics circuit breakers were popped. I proceeded to shut down the avionics switch and pushed the circuit breakers back in and waited a few minutes before turning it back on. When I turned the avionics switch back on everything came back online for a few seconds. I am trying to transmit to ATC that I have had a complete avionics failure and was in hard IMC. I could hear ATC transmitting to other aircraft and trying to get ahold of me. I pushed the PTT switch several times to transmit and I could not get a positive readback from ATC. My 750 and 650 came back online so it gave me a chance to squawk XXXX. As soon as I squawked XXXX I made a right turn to the east. My decision was to go to ZZZ2 and not proceed into the mountains into ZZZ1 since I had no PFD. Eventually all of the circuit breaker popped again so I was flying only off of the whiskey compass and the Garmin G5 standby instrument. Once I passed over the mountain range to the east I then again reset everything while maintaining 16000 feet. I was still in IMC so I had a stratus on board that allowed me to use fore flight to get a estimated bearing to ZZZ4. Eventually everything came back online and was finally able to get back into contact with ATC. I told them that I wanted to go direct to ZZZ4 as everything seemed to be working again. I announced my intentions as clearly as fast as I could in case I lost everything again. They gave me a heading and an altitude to descend to so I proceeded to comply with their instructions. Once I got below the clouds I then was given cleared for the visual approach to XXL into ZZZ4. Once I got on the ground I called the mechanic and he gave me some ideas to test and everything seemed to be in normal operation. I did a run up on the ground. I stayed the night since it was getting late and weather was rolling in. I went back to the airplane the next day and did a second run up and reported back the information to the mechanic and everything seemed to be legal and within ops check. So I flew the airplane to ZZZ5; VFR to get looked at. The airplane was scheduled to go there for a couple tire changes and get the AC serviced. On the flight home nothing seemed out of normal procedures of the airplane during an extensive ground run and anytime in flight.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.