The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Air Safety Institute (ASI) has released a new episode of its Real Pilot Story video series.
In the “Real Pilot Story: Lost Elevator,” Rob Olsen-Drye recounts cruising the blue Alaskan summer sky at 1,300 feet msl when he lost elevator authority.
“I heard a pop, pulled back on the yoke, and noticed the airplane’s attitude didn’t change. At that point I knew I was going to be landing somewhere.”
“ASI’s Real Pilot Story series allows pilots to share their encounter with a dilemma so others can benefit — while comfortable on the ground — from lessons learned the hard way in flight,” said AOPA Air Safety Institute Senior Director Paul Deres. “We applaud Rob’s ability to work through the problem. His knowledge and training, his airplane’s equipment, and a dose of luck helped him walk away from the accident.”
View the real pilot story.
In this case, the airflow over the horizontal stabilizer was disrupted, so don’t think the trim would have had much effect. Worth a try anyway.
My Cessna wouldn’t have the problem that the Pacer did.
So, if an elevator cable broke or a pulley failed, and the elevator was not jammed…
I’d use the elevator trim to control pitch, along with power.
I use trim in all phases of flight; climb, cruise and decent, to eliminate pressure on the yoke.
Yes. As we know from go-arounds, adding power in single engine aircraft will raise the nose due to the increased downward pressure on the tail from the propeller propwash around the fuselage. Maybe that would have worked at least to some extent for this pilot even with the airflow problem he had. Could have experimented at altitude at approach speed to see if that would work at all to help get the pitch leveled out.