ERJ guys be careful....

[djsk]

I hope this doesn't post twice

Waiting to take off, we took some good thunderstorm gusts on the tail, about 50kts. By the time we turned into the wind half the elevator broke.

Mx called us in for an inspection, and you can imagine the holy crap factor stepping out of the plane looking at one elevator panel full down and one full up. Controls felt fine and smooth, mechanical gust lock. I'm sure it would have flown, but probably not right.

Don't know if it was a cable or what. I think I'll peak my head out the door anytime the controls start bouncing around too much.

Fly safe

 

[minnereg]

watch out for energized electrical wires on the ground as well...

"you're gonna get fried!"

 

[D-Bo]

I hope this doesn't post twice

Waiting to take off, we took some good thunderstorm gusts on the tail, about 50kts. By the time we turned into the wind half the elevator broke.

Mx called us in for an inspection, and you can imagine the holy crap factor stepping out of the plane looking at one elevator panel full down and one full up. Controls felt fine and smooth, mechanical gust lock. I'm sure it would have flown, but probably not right.

Don't know if it was a cable or what. I think I'll peak my head out the door anytime the controls start bouncing around too much.

Fly safe

Did this happen to be in KSTL late this morning?

 

[Whydoitry]

I hope this doesn't post twice

Waiting to take off, we took some good thunderstorm gusts on the tail, about 50kts. By the time we turned into the wind half the elevator broke.

Mx called us in for an inspection, and you can imagine the holy crap factor stepping out of the plane looking at one elevator panel full down and one full up. Controls felt fine and smooth, mechanical gust lock. I'm sure it would have flown, but probably not right.

Don't know if it was a cable or what. I think I'll peak my head out the door anytime the controls start bouncing around too much.

Fly safe

So...you would have taken off had mx not called you? Can you give some more info...what airline do u fly for?

 

[shamrock]

What kind of gust protection does an ERJ have?

On the CRJ there's in the neighborhood of 3000 PSI of hydraulic pressure on the controls, which I would think would do pretty well against gusts. I don't think I've ever had a 50 knot tailwind blowing on the ground though.

 

[Jbitzer]

Did the controls seperate? ie could the capt and fo move the controls in opposite directions?

 

[The Drizzle]

What kind of gust protection does an ERJ have?

On the CRJ there's in the neighborhood of 3000 PSI of hydraulic pressure on the controls, which I would think would do pretty well against gusts. I don't think I've ever had a 50 knot tailwind blowing on the ground though.

ERJ is cable actuated for the horizontal stab

 

[JetMonkey]

When I flew for ExpressJet, theirs had an electro-mech. lock which helped dampend the elevator during strong winds. I do remember looking down on the tail on one that was going through a "c-check" once and noticed that there's only 2 bolts that holds that thing in place.

 

[CHQ Pilot]

ERJ is cable actuated for the horizontal stab

I'm pretty sure the horizontal stab is electric and the elevators are cable driven, thought I may be wrong (it's been a little bit).

I've had some pretty good gusts come up the tail, but I've never heard of them splitting. I'm guessing the control disconnect broke?

 

[erj-145mech]

You are correct, the pitch trim (horiz stab) is electric and the pitch control is cable actuated. Sounds like something broke up in zone 333/334. Perhaps it was a pitch horn. It rides on a serated shaft, and may have sheared.

 

[Lookingbetter]

JBitzer was on to it... There is a safety feature that allows for elevator disconnect between Capt and FO controls. Cockpit control of that is a little red knob on the pedistal. I would assume that likely the high gusts popped it loose

 

[erj-145mech]

That would let the CA's yoke operate the left elevator and the FO's yoke to operate the right elevator independantly from each other. If the two sticks operate together, then thats not the issue. The disconnect is physically located under the floor below the rudder pedals.

 

[Whydoitry]

I hope this doesn't post twice

Waiting to take off, we took some good thunderstorm gusts on the tail, about 50kts. By the time we turned into the wind half the elevator broke.

Mx called us in for an inspection, and you can imagine the holy crap factor stepping out of the plane looking at one elevator panel full down and one full up. Controls felt fine and smooth, mechanical gust lock. I'm sure it would have flown, but probably not right.

Don't know if it was a cable or what. I think I'll peak my head out the door anytime the controls start bouncing around too much.

Fly safe

Im still curious about the "mx called us in for an inspection"

 

[shamrock]

You are correct, the pitch trim (horiz stab) is electric and the pitch control is cable actuated.

So is there anything acting as a control lock while you are taxiing?

When I was on the 1900 we had to put the control lock in (or manually hold the yoke) when the winds would slam the controls around but on the CRJ you have hydraulic pressure on all the surfaces holding them in place against gusts. Just trying to understand which type of system the ERJ has.

 

[swordfish]

So...you would have taken off had mx not called you? Can you give some more info...what airline do u fly for?

it was transstates airlines in kstl. i was pointed into the wind on the C pad, they where holding short of the RW30 not pointed into the wind, after about 20 min the tower ask if they wanted to taxi on to the RW to be pointed into the wind. Makes me wonder about there MX over there at TSA. Be careful

 

[rjacobs]

If it was a mechanical gust lock, there is just friction on the shaft between the captain and fo yoke under the cockpit, if it was an electro-mechanical lock than there is pins that go into the actual elevator to hold it in place. This plane must have had the older mechanical lock as with the electro lock I doubt this could have happened.

 

[TurboJetCpt]

DAAAAAAAAAAAAMN !!!!!!

 

[belchfire]

Why did MX call them in? Was it precautionary because of the gusts or did someone outside notice the mismatch between the control surfaces? I would think that the tower might notice that...

 

[Holy Shiite]

I have seen this before with the ERJ,s. While waiting in line at BOS for RWY 33, I was behind 2 ERJ,s and the winds were gusting to almost 50 but straight down the runway. With the wind directly behind the aircraft, those cheezy ERJ,s have some weird snafu with the controls (elevators) where they bang back and forth to full deflection repeatedly. We contacted the Chatauqua crew on the company freq and told them what we were seeing and it looked pretty bad from our vantage point. They said they were holding the yoke full forward and the elevators were STILL banging off the stops repeatedly? That is a pretty $hitty design and I'm glad I don't fly that tin can. The CRJ was smooth and solid in the same conditions due to the fact we have hydraulic boosted controls in lieu of cables.

This was about 2 years ago and both ERJ crews elected to depart without even inspecting their aircraft. I was stunned at the decision to do so when we made it very clear to both crews that it appeared their tail feathers were about to fall part!

 

[CHQ Pilot]

I found holding the yoke full aft doesn't cause nearly the vibrations. It has always been a "problem" on the ERJs, but told that it is normal. The elctro-mechanical gust lock helped, but I've still seem them shake quite a bit. The big difference is that I haven't heard on the elctro lock "breaking" through during a gust up the tail, unlike the straight mechanical which I'd seen periodically come free and start whipping around.

 

[SUSPilot]

it was transstates airlines in kstl. i was pointed into the wind on the C pad, they where holding short of the RW30 not pointed into the wind, after about 20 min the tower ask if they wanted to taxi on to the RW to be pointed into the wind. Makes me wonder about there MX over there at TSA. Be careful

Its the exact MX that you scumbags have. We'll see what happens when the warranties are up on the shiny new CRJ-700s.

 

[djsk]

Like ERJ Mech said, something sheared or broke so one panel would not move at all and was just hanging down. Controls were still connected so the other panel moved fine.

Apparently there is a standard "Gale Force Wind Inspection" with the mechanical gust lock. Don't know how long that has been around for.

 

[FlyHIToo]

There is actually an EMB service bulletin that requires an inspection of the elevator if the a/c has a tailwind gust in excess of 45kts on all non-elec. gust lock a/c.