Jammed Elevator

I fly a Cessna P206 hauling skydivers. Today on one of the drops a
glove somehow managed to become jammed between the mass balance and the
end of the stab which jammed the elevator in about the 1/3 "up"
position. I could see two fingers sticking up above the elevator with
something flapping on the underside. The airplane was pitching up and I
had to roll into a bank to slice the nose down to keep from stalling. I
went through several repetitions of that until I found a power setting
that lessened the pitch-up, then I was able to force the yoke forward
slightly and stablized in a slight descent at 80kts IAS. I got the boss
on the radio and headed the airplane toward a deserted area that would
be okay to bail out over if needed and would be a good place for the
airplane to crash if it came to that. The jumpers had exited at 13000,
I was at about 11,500 when I got things stablized. I got ready to
bailout (tightened the leg straps, tightened the lap belt, felt the lap
belt release and the ripcord handle) and then planned on how to fix the
problem. I decided to try and force the glove out by moving the
elevator. I first pulled on the yoke and was able to get almost full up
elevator but it was still not free and took a great deal of effort to
move the yoke. This of course pitched me up sharply so I rolled left
and as the nose started down rolled level and pushed the yoke forward.
I was only doing about 60-65kts when I pushed so I wasn't worried about
breaking the airplane, but I'm here to tell ya a 206 makes some odd
noised when you push that hard negative. G I think it was the air
over the vent intakes...weird sound. The elevator was still not free as
I pitched over, I was thinking it was looking more and more like I was
going to have to jump...I pulled hard on the yoke and this time things
came free. The glove (or whatever it was) was gone and the controls
now worked normally. A gentle descent and landing followed by a close
look at the airplane. The only damage was a slight bend in the stab
top skin where the glove was jammed. (The flightsuit can be cleaned G)

One risk of hauling skydivers is that a jumper may have a parachute open
on the step which can lead to the tail being damaged or removed from the
airplane. Because of this I've thought about what I would do if that
should occur. I've even practiced flying with the yoke held in one
position to simulate a jammed elevator. Today it paid off.

--
Dale L. Falk

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing around with airplanes.

http://home.gci.net/~sncdfalk/flying.html

Dale wrote:
I could see two fingers sticking up above the elevator with
something flapping on the underside.

It's a good thing it was just a glove!

(The flightsuit can be cleaned G)
That would be a first among jump ship pilots. ;-)

Thanks for the lesson. Rolling to drop the nose is something I will keep in
mind, should I need it.

Congrats for keeping your head and working the problem.

Scott

Nice job! And thanks for posting the story. I learned quite a bit from it.


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tscottme wrote:
Thanks for the lesson. Rolling to drop the nose is something I will keep in
mind, should I need it.

Congrats for keeping your head and working the problem.

Scott

I've seen a mention here previously of doing this, and I'm wondering if
someone here could comment on the aerodynamics of this. It's not obvious
to me that for a given elevator position, rolling to keep the nose level
would affect the likelihood of a stall. You are stopping the airplane
from climbing, but the stall speed has increased because you are in a bank.

Are you actually flying further from a stall if the elevator is in a
"climb" position but you bank the plane to stay level?

--
David Rind

You had two additional controls you failed to mention using, the rudder
and the elevator trim.
Elevator trim will increase/decrease pitch.
Rudder, when used with elevator will allow you to slip right or left and
control both pitch and airspeed.

Dale wrote:
I fly a Cessna P206 hauling skydivers. Today on one of the drops a
glove somehow managed to become jammed between the mass balance and the
end of the stab which jammed the elevator in about the 1/3 "up"
position. I could see two fingers sticking up above the elevator with
something flapping on the underside. The airplane was pitching up and I
had to roll into a bank to slice the nose down to keep from stalling. I
went through several repetitions of that until I found a power setting
that lessened the pitch-up, then I was able to force the yoke forward
slightly and stablized in a slight descent at 80kts IAS. I got the boss
on the radio and headed the airplane toward a deserted area that would
be okay to bail out over if needed and would be a good place for the
airplane to crash if it came to that. The jumpers had exited at 13000,
I was at about 11,500 when I got things stablized. I got ready to
bailout (tightened the leg straps, tightened the lap belt, felt the lap
belt release and the ripcord handle) and then planned on how to fix the
problem. I decided to try and force the glove out by moving the
elevator. I first pulled on the yoke and was able to get almost full up
elevator but it was still not free and took a great deal of effort to
move the yoke. This of course pitched me up sharply so I rolled left
and as the nose started down rolled level and pushed the yoke forward.
I was only doing about 60-65kts when I pushed so I wasn't worried about
breaking the airplane, but I'm here to tell ya a 206 makes some odd
noised when you push that hard negative. G I think it was the air
over the vent intakes...weird sound. The elevator was still not free as
I pitched over, I was thinking it was looking more and more like I was
going to have to jump...I pulled hard on the yoke and this time things
came free. The glove (or whatever it was) was gone and the controls
now worked normally. A gentle descent and landing followed by a close
look at the airplane. The only damage was a slight bend in the stab
top skin where the glove was jammed. (The flightsuit can be cleaned G)

One risk of hauling skydivers is that a jumper may have a parachute open
on the step which can lead to the tail being damaged or removed from the
airplane. Because of this I've thought about what I would do if that
should occur. I've even practiced flying with the yoke held in one
position to simulate a jammed elevator. Today it paid off.

In article ,
john smith wrote:

You had two additional controls you failed to mention using, the rudder
and the elevator trim.
Elevator trim will increase/decrease pitch.
Rudder, when used with elevator will allow you to slip right or left and
control both pitch and airspeed.


The trim wouldn't work in this case...the elevator would not move.

--
Dale L. Falk

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing around with airplanes.

http://home.gci.net/~sncdfalk/flying.html

In article ,
David Rind wrote:


I've seen a mention here previously of doing this, and I'm wondering if
someone here could comment on the aerodynamics of this. It's not obvious
to me that for a given elevator position, rolling to keep the nose level
would affect the likelihood of a stall. You are stopping the airplane
from climbing, but the stall speed has increased because you are in a bank.

Bank angle does not affect stall speed, the increased load factor that
comes with a banked turn does.

--
Dale L. Falk

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing around with airplanes.

http://home.gci.net/~sncdfalk/flying.html

Dale wrote in
:

In article ,
john smith wrote:

You had two additional controls you failed to mention using, the
rudder and the elevator trim.
Elevator trim will increase/decrease pitch.
Rudder, when used with elevator will allow you to slip right or left
and control both pitch and airspeed.


The trim wouldn't work in this case...the elevator would not move.


Did the glove get stuck during the jump, or was it there when you took off?

It's not obvious to me that for a given elevator position, rolling
to keep the nose level would affect the likelihood of a stall.

Agreed. The elevator position determines the AOA. Banking the
airplane keeps more or less the same AOA, but the associated speed
will increase.

If the a/c didn't stall in the bank, then it likely wasn't going to
stall in straight flight, particuarly with only 1/3 "up" and a forward
CG.