There’s a few less hairs on my head today

mrivc211 said:
Got to do a test flight today. Trim was installed backwards. It took my full strength from keeping it below 5 degrees nose up. Things got Spicey for a minute there. Best part was when tower said they’ve got wn on final and I told him get rid of him lol
Tower sup called later “ hey I’m calling for….oh it was you. Ok Nevermind”

I wanted to choke my mechanic when I landed after he told me to just go up again and trim it opposite of what I want to do. He was half serious
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Damn, that sucks. Glad to hear you figured it out and landed safely!



Reminds me of this:

 
This happened to a former JC member in a Searey a couple years ago. He told me it was an.....exciting....realization.
 
fholbert said:
Mrivc,

Inquiring minds want to know.
  • I assume the first thing you did was trim nose down, the indicated way?
  • Did you immediately know what was causing the issue?
  • Going around the pattern is your brain and hand fighting each other to trim the correct way?
  • Did you declare ? How much did ATC know about your issue?
  • How did you sleep? When I had a major emergency the what if's kept me up all night.
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In May of this year, we painted the plane and installed a new engine. After 27 hours on the new engine, the oil filter adapter screws came off, and the airplane landed on the 101. The problem was traced back to the engine shop that installed it. The technician did not torque the screws, he hand tightened them and forgot to go back and torque them. I got the call around 5pm from my CFI and headed to the plane. I got there at 10pm and finished pulling the wings off around 4:30am. It was on a tow truck by 7am headed back home. It sat for 6 months until yesterday where we finally installed a new engine and airplane was re rigged(wings put back on). I don't have anyone do the test flights other than me for reasons like yesterday. If anything happens, its my life, not theres, and if something does happen, I can't sue myself.

In the previous 18 months, I've installed 6 engines on my various airplanes with my A&P. However, this was the first time that it was a first flight for a new engine along with flight control check. The flight control check made me a bit nervous. I checked the flight controls thoroughly 3 times and set the trim to neutral before taking off. I consulted 2 A&P's that are pilots that have done these types of flights and asked them their opinions. The advice I got was takeoff on the longest runway, check the flight controls a few feet above the ground and if everything looks good, take it up.

So I got airborne, felt the controls, everything felt fine, so I took it up. The problem started happening when I leveled off at our break in altitude of 2000 feet. We need to run the engine hard at full power and full mixture to let the piston rings seed in which means you'll be flying at the top of the speed envelope. As I sped up, I had to trim. I soon noticed that I had almost 80% of the trim used and the flight controls were fighting me.

I then reversed the trim and felt no difference. The mistake I made in this was I reversed the trim direction but didn't go far enough. While this was going on, the airplane was still accelerating, so even though I removed trim, the acceleration added lift, counter acting the reverse trim. It felt like reversing the trim wasn't doing anything so I went back in the wrong direction. Keep in mind, I'm looking at the trim indicator and its showing I'm doing the right thing, but the airplanes fighting me, and I already tried fixing it. So at that point, I had full forward on the yoke, the airplanes nose was 5 degrees above the horizon wanting to flip on its back, I had the power pulled back now but it was still wanting to flip. I was too scared to • with anything else at that point because I had it somewhat controllable, so I was in fear it would seal my fate. My muscles were cramped wanting to give out.

At that point I started to make a shallow bank back to the runway and towers asking me if I need assistance. The only reason I said I don't know is because:

1. I was too busy mentally fighting the airplane
2. Nothing could be done at the point other than get it down somehow.

After he said he had traffic on final for the long runway, I finally told him to get everyone out of the way. After it was all over and I had a chance to evaluate things and compare this on the scale of crap thats happened to me, it probably ranks higher than when I flew from SLC-PSC in the CRJ200 about ten years ago. Half way thru the flight got a CAS msg of flaps fail. I checked with mx control and they wanted me to return to SLC. I had to shoot a CAT II approach in the 200 with flaps 0. We had no fuel to go anywhere else because none of that was planned. I ended up doing a go around in the flare because I couldn't see the runway and made it in on the second try. Yesterdays event was by far way scarier. I thought 50% chance I wasn't going to make it while it was going on. Some thoughts going thru my head at the time yesterday was if I was going to eat sh*t into the ground, I was going to announce what the issue was on the radio to help investigators. That was so my family had closure and knew what had happened. No CVR on these GA planes will leave them guessing for decades and the entire internet quarterbacking you on how you did it wrong.

Anyways, this will be a good story next year at NJC if I hopefully make it out there.
 
Boris Badenov said:
Now that the full story is out, I'd just like to point out that the correct syntax would be "FEWER hairs". I hope this helps. Don't get it twisted, I'm still glad that you're alive. We have all sorts of programs for grammar felons, however extreme their transgressions. We're just attempting to prevent recidivism.
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I too, am glad this didn’t become a tragedy
 
I would presume that as you slowed the elevator forces would have become more tolerable. The faster you were going the harder you had to push. Good thing you didn't break anything stressing the elevator or control cables. Speed is life and the last thing I'd be thinking is to try slowing down. You slow down for a structural failure and that's about it. Who's going to break the engine in now?
 
DE727UPS said:
I would presume that as you slowed the elevator forces would have become more tolerable. The faster you were going the harder you had to push. Good thing you didn't break anything stressing the elevator or control cables. Speed is life and the last thing I'd be thinking is to try slowing down. You slow down for a structural failure and that's about it. Who's going to break the engine in now?
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Still me
 
Glad it work out OK.

For me the canonical "reversed controls" is an A320 back in 2001.

The investigation has focused on maintenance on the captain's controls carried out by [MRO shop] just before the flight. During the previous flight a problem with one of the two elevator/ aileron computers (ELAC) had occurred. An electrical pin in the connector was found to be damaged and was replaced. It has been confirmed that two pairs of pins inside the connector had accidentally been crossed during the repair. This changed the polarity in the sidestick and the respective control channels, "bypassing" the control unit which might have sensed the error and would have triggered a warning. Clues might have been seen on the ECAM screen during the flight control checks, but often pilots only check for a deflection indication, not the direction. Before the aircraft left the hangar a flight control check was performed by the mechanic, but only using the first officer's sidestick.
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It's also not unheard of on the A320 to get the wheel tach sensors or anti-skid servo wiring reversed, which makes for a spicy rollout.
 
Years ago I got I a CRJ in Clarksburg, WV at 2am to ferry the plane home and, as we started rolling down the runway discovered the rudder pedals on my (FO) side were connected backwards. I can't imagine trying to solve that problem in the air.
 
BobDDuck said:
Years ago I got I a CRJ in Clarksburg, WV at 2am to ferry the plane home and, as we started rolling down the runway discovered the rudder pedals on my (FO) side were connected backwards. I can't imagine trying to solve that problem in the air.
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Would probably be easier in the air, it’s not like you use the rudder in a jet once you’re airborne….
Now if the yaw damp was also running backwards yeah you’re probably dead
 
ppragman said:
Several years ago I went out to get a bite to eat, came back, and a new trim switch had been installed backward. No write up, the mechanic had just switched it out. I had no idea, gave me quite a fright when I took off.
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One more reason why I, in the six years I flew pax in Caravans, never once used the electric trim.
 
Roger Roger said:
Ummm k
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Cherokee_Cruiser said:
But could you fly a Caravan as a SIC with a deferred autopilot?
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Reason #1: At the Pt.135 airline where I flew, a single pilot operation, I'd do 12 takeoffs and landings on a typical day. Using the e-trim going up and down all day like that wears them out quickly, and they're very expensive. (And MX has more important things to do.)

#2: Never have to worry about runaway trim, as happened to one of our pilots.

#3: Better feel for the airplane and smoother transitions during the ballistic trajectories we were required to fly to stay within glide-to-land distance.
 
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