I had been in New York for 6 weeks. Had a sick friend at home, and this was the second long trip in a row. We were at the airport and the flight we had that would take us home canceled. I called Dad to tell him and he and mom were both not doing well. They received a letter to me from my friend and had been opening my mail and taking care of everything for me, so they didn't know what to do with it. They both had a bad feeling though. I said open it up, and he read it and took it that it was a suicide note. I told my partner we could either fly the plane home, or I was going on the airline, but I was going no matter what. We opted to take the jet (he was tired of being there too.) I was flying (he thought it would take my mind off it) and he was in back doing the jeps. I was flying at FL410 (41,000 feet) the wrong way for fuel and wind so I wouldn't have to stop for gas going across the country. I was going around a huge thunder storm on the north side, and my partner came up and asked why I went around that way. I told him it was moving south fast and I couldn't go around it that way and get home without landing for gas. He finished and as he was climbing back into his seat, he leaned forward on the yoke, and as he pulled his foot over the center console, tripped the auto pilot. The nose dropped sharpley and I pulled back firmly. The aircraft didn't change pitch, but buffeted badly. He has 10 times the hours I do so he took it and pulled the power off both engines. He pulled back and the buffeting got worse. The over speed bell started ringing and I looked at the VSI and it was pegged. I keyed the mic and said "24N need lower now!". It was midnight and the controller was asleep so he came back with "say again". We were over 1000 feet low already, so all I could think about was the ticket we were going to get. I reached up and turned the transponders both off (primary and backup). By this time we were slowing and had the nose up at a pretty good angle and were climbing as fast as we can. I keyed the mic and said "disregard". About 10 seconds passed and the controller says "24N, I lost your transponder". I told him I would cycle it and see if that helped. As we leveled I turned it back on and asked if he had it. He said "yep, its there now."

Everyone said if we would have been in the Lear, we wouldn't have gotten it to pull out. The Westind doesn't TUCK as bad as a lear will.

From then on, my hand is over the auto pilot switches when anyone gets in or out of their seat.

We were really lucky on a few accounts that night.

Let me tell you though, the northern light show that night were the most magnificent I have ever seen!