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Beech1900 Trim issue. Bad Maint again

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chperplt

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Nov 25, 2001
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NTSB Identification: NYC04IA010
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Incident occurred Thursday, October 16, 2003 in Albany, NY
Aircraft: Beech 1900D, registration: N850CA
Injuries: 2 Uninjured.

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed.

On October 16, 2003, at 0805 eastern daylight time, a Beech 1900D, N850CA, operated by CommutAir as Continental Connection flight 8718, was not damaged during an aborted takeoff at Albany International Airport (ALB), Albany, New York. The certificated airline transport pilot and certificated commercial pilot were not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the planned flight to Westchester County Airport (HPN), White Plains, New York. An instrument flight rules flight plan was filed for the positioning flight conducted under 14 CFR Part 91.

According to the Director of Safety at CommutAir, the captain initiated a takeoff roll on runway 19 at ALB. As the airplane accelerated to approximately 115 knots, about V1, the captain noted that the elevator control was jammed. He subsequently aborted the takeoff and taxied back to the ramp uneventfully.

The airplane was examined at CommutAir's maintenance facility after the incident. The examination revealed that when the elevator trim wheel in the cockpit was positioned to neutral, the elevator trim was actually in a nose-down position.

A mechanic performed maintenance on the airplane one day prior to the incident, and the incident flight was the first flight after the maintenance. The mechanic stated that part of the maintenance performed on the airplane included removal and replacement of a throttle pin. To accomplish that procedure, the mechanic had removed the elevator trim wheel. However, he did not index the elevator trim wheel before removing it, and reinstalled it incorrectly.
 
That pilot gets a Gold Star!

Thumbs Up to that pilot for being so alert and making a fast decision.

But, I'm worried.

Why wasn't that found on the preflight? When I flew the Metroliner (different trim system, I know) we would run the trim back and forth to either limit and then make sure the indication on the inside of the cockpit matched the index marked on the tail outside the airplane.

The Metroliner has kind of a screwy (jackscrewy) trim system but the preflight allowed plenty of opportunity to find a problem after maintenance.
 
Not only does the pilot get a gold star, but why was this the first flight after maintenance?

Is it no longer common practice for the mechanic to at least be on board for a test flight after maintenance? Our A&P guys always flew the Lears first, usually with the CP along, who had beaucoups Lear time, before anyone else would get near the airplane.
 
Why wasn't that found on the preflight?

There are no marks on the tail that we can use to verify trim position. Obviously there should be. We run the trim full up and down, both manually and electrically, during the first flight of the day checks.

My guess is that since the maintenance performed was to R&R a throttle pin, no test flight was required. I imagine all that was required was an engine run. Why the guy didn't index the trim wheel I don't know and is the question.
 
N850CA???

Isn't that FrankenBeech??

Crunched by Colgan, the carcass bought up by CommutAir, fixed up for a song, and never quite the same as new?

Ahhhh, "the good old days". :D

To steal and change a phrase from "King of the Hill"...

"That plane ain't right!"

In any case, mad props (heh heh) to the PIC on that one.
 

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