Unnerving incident today…

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elmanzah
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Unnerving incident today…

Post by elmanzah »

Hello all, I believe in community learning and so I am here to share this experience for the benefits of others and to learn from others. No ego on my part - just continuous learning.

Since I’ve sold my plane, I’ve been doing mostly simulator training to stay current. The flight school closest to me has stopped renting the G1000 DA40 they used to have. Today, I expanded my search for other flight schools and decided it was ok to fly a Cessna 172 with G1000 at listed in a flight school two hours away. I booked an hour with the instructor in that school to get checked out in the Cessna. Here is how the flight went:

The Cessna was a newer model 172S. Though I trained on a 172 nine years ago, the plane was understandably unfamiliar to me. I was very keen to follow the checklists to the T. After taxing to the run-up area and stopping, I was surprised to feel the rudder pedals not being even. The instructor pointed out the nose wheel was turned and this wasn’t a caster-ing wheel setup. Made sense but this reinforced how I felt about this plane: it was unfamiliar. This is material to what happens later during the flight.

There were other things that were unfamiliar to me in this airplane. The G1000 engine instruments, the vacuum indicator, the need to arm the battery and other things. They all reinforced the feeling I spoke about. It felt very unfamiliar.

Next.. I completed all the checklists and now we are now taking off. Right away, the plane wanted to pitch up aggressively. I was surprised at the amount to force I had to apply to push the stick forward and prevent the plane from stalling. Naturally, I went to the trim wheel to adjust it and it felt elastic - in the sense it would move but come back to its original position! I knew this couldn’t be right and I tried to use the electric trim on the stick.. no response. I told the instructor this doesn’t feel right. Initially he said “it wants to fly” and I quickly responded.. “I don’t like this”.

He took control and we exchanged the familiar “you haven control”..”I have control” phraseology. He immediately agreed something is wrong. I should say that the plane was controllable through out this short flight. From there, I called tower and informed them we need to land right away and that there was some issue with the controls. We were cleared to land and we did. It was stressful but I was keen not to project any stress I was feeling on the instructor and actually complimented his flying skills in attempt to keep him focused and confident.


The instructor and I debriefed and were happy how we handled the situation. BUT.. I have been doing some self reflection on this flight and to be honest, I am still running through every detail of that short flight starting with my walk around the plane.

Things I think I did well:
1-Though the instructor was very pleased I spoke up as soon as I did, I still think there was some delay. There was some delay because my brain was programmed to believe that any strange behavior I was encountering was due to MY unfamiliarity with the plane. Still, we landed and I am going to classify me speaking up as soon as I did as a positive.

2- We communicated well and I think we took the right course of action turning around right away. There was no hesitation there.

3- I was deliberate in NOT trying to move the trim wheel with more force because I didn’t want to break or fray any wires. That was an active thought and I will count it as a positive.

Things I did NOT do well:

1-This airplane was new to me and I didn’t check the logs of the airplane and while there are no guarantees I could’ve predicted this had I reviewed the logs, still I should’ve. Who knows what else I could’ve un covered.

2- The checklist is explicit in saying I had to check free and correct controls. I did but I didn’t take that to mean manipulating the trim wheel. The wheel was already set on “take off” and so no where throughout did I move it to check IT FOR free and correct movement.

3- This one is important. I had made a decision years ago that I will only fly the plane I am familiar with. My mission is a recreational one and it was safer to stay consistent with the type and make that I fly. Today, I betrayed that principle. I am not suggesting that this couldn’t have happened in a Diamond. It certainly could but being familiar with the plane is in my estimate very important in any type of emergency situation.

4- others?


I appreciate all feedback.

Thanks.
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AndrewM
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Re: Unnerving incident today…

Post by AndrewM »

Sounds overall you handled it pretty well. When you did move the trim wheel did the plane's pitch or the controls change feeling/forces at all, before it just went back to the original position? If the pitch / control forces did change to make the plane more controllable when you started to adjust the trim wheel, I probably would have just manually held it in place while the instructor flew the plane just to make things a little easier from a control perspective. It sounds like the trim wheel tensioning / friction block or something failed?

While I can understand your view on wanting to be in a Diamond, if you don't own one or have one to rent near by, flying a C172 (with and instructor until you are checked out AND feel confident/competent) is certainly not bad decision making.
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dgger
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Re: Unnerving incident today…

Post by dgger »

Thank you for sharing this incident. I feel discussing incidents like this is a great and oftentimes missed opportunity to improve flight safety. I personally keep a log of any event that had the potential to contribute to degraded flight safety. Over the years my log has grown to be longer than I had hoped, I have to admit.

Arguably you should indeed have checked the trim prior take-off. However, I assume you did use an existing checklist that you walked through which did not list the trim separately from the flight controls. Correct? My personal checklist lists the trim check individually and I would have likely missed it just like you, if I were in an unfamiliar aircraft just ticking off items one by one. Now, second guessing a 3rd party checklist for this flight is clearly outside your scope of responsibility and I am admittedly unsure what the take-away for the future might be here.

However, in my view you are a little harder on yourself than the situation warrants. I like the idea of not flying too many different aircraft to be familiar with the ones you fly. But then, I think you did everything by the book. You brought a flight instructor along that had the expertise you were missing. That is the way to go and you got that right. Honestly, I don't think you betrayed your principle here.
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Re: Unnerving incident today…

Post by Boatguy »

First, I agree with Peter that it's great to air out these incidents. I think you handled the problem correctly, transferred controls and landed immediately. The value of this community is through the sharing and comments. Now, could it have been avoided?

I trained on several C172Ss with G1000 and GFC700 autopilot. You didn't mention if this plane had a GFC700 or KAP140 autopilot. If it did, then read on, if not, then these comments are irrelevant to your situation.

One of the things on my C172 (and DA40) checklist is to verify the electric trim controls since those are used by the AP. I use the trim control switches on the yoke/stick to move the trim forward, then aft, usually coming to rest on the TO setting. Then I individually operate the switches which should NOT move the trim. This is to ensure that the switches are both operating correctly (i.e., both are required to move the trim) to prevent runaway trim.

Had you done a verification of the electric trim controls, it might have revealed the problem you experienced. I say might because I we don't know where the actual problem was in your trim controls.
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Re: Unnerving incident today…

Post by elmanzah »

Thank you all for the responses.

Andrew: No.. the slight movement in the trim wheel didn’t result in any relief of the controls. Something was jammed with the trim wheel. I agree something was wrong but as of now I don’t know what it is. I am definitely interested in finding out what it is.

Peter: I love the idea of keeping a log. Going to do the same. I use ForeFlight (don’t we all?) and will see if there is a way I can employ tags to filter on those flights with good lessons learned. The checklist I used was the one the school created. Perhaps my takeaway there is to seek out the manufacturer’s check list and see what is omitted or added by the school. Overkill? I don’t know.

Russ: This was a kap140 plane. yes agreeing with what you said.
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Re: Unnerving incident today…

Post by CBeak »

I just noticed last week that the trim wheel was “jammed” by a headset cord. It was as simple as moving it out of the way, but a wee bit unnerving. The headsets plug in so close to the trim wheel, and then come forward for the wearer. The cord was just loosely lying right in front of the trim wheel, and when I tried to apply down trim, it caught one of the little protruding knobs on the outer edge of the wheel.
It was not a big deal, but afterward I was thinking that might be a design flaw that nobody saw coming.
Of course, I just now realized you were in a 172 and that’s a different setup.
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Re: Unnerving incident today…

Post by Soareyes »

Not applicable to the 172 but in a Diamond the control stick can be jammed by a phone sized object slipping into the space between the stick and the seat.
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Re: Unnerving incident today…

Post by Rich »

Once upon a time (1970's) I gave a lot of flight instruction, often in customers' airplanes. So I would jump from type to type, often in a single day. I always had to familiarize myself with the specific airplane, not just the type. Big differences abounded even then.

Fuel systems were the biggest difference, with details of LG retraction systems probably a very close second. There were also routinely differences in panel layouts, and avionics. Even the steam gauges had all sorts of nuances you'd better understand. (Ever flown with a vacuum system driven, not by a vacuum pump, but a Venturi tube?) It was also useful to know (TADA!) how the trim worked. Many have a tab on the elevator (possibly anti-servo) but others worked by changing the horizontal stabilizer incidence angle.

This hasn't really changed. One could argue it's potentially worse, since those old birds are still flying today. But, additionally, now you may or may not have glass panels. And each such model operates differently. A given plane might have all the integrated goodies (ADS-B In/out, XM, TCAS, etc.), and another one of the same type on the same flight line has some or none of the extras.
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Re: Unnerving incident today…

Post by Rich »

Just an interesting tidbit: I've flown somewhat later model 172's but not any G1000 variant. Did I understand correctly that there is still a vacuum system in these?
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Re: Unnerving incident today…

Post by blsewardjr »

For the backup instruments
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