PartIII Now it is about 1993 and I am an FO on a Learjet 23 and doing maint. on the airplane during the day. We are at 310 on a check run from JAX to MIA. We are flying right at MMO which you always do when you are flying checks. It came time for the decent, we had a female passenger along who was a mutual friend of myself and the captain. I was flying and the captain said lets do something fun. He said go to flight idle and extend the speed brakes at TOD. So I did what he said, we went zero G and started the decent. The nose started pointing down about 45 degrees and we were going straight down, the first thing I thought was Mach tuck. I retracted the speed brakes and tried to pull the nose up. It wouldn't budge. Meanwhile we are decending at over 8000 feet per minute and the earth is getting bigger fast. I calculate that we have about 3 minutes before putting a big hole in the Everglades. The captain who was a black belt master says, I have it, and he couldn't budge the elevator. During the zero G manuever all the freight, passenger, and everything else in the airplane has joined us on the flight deck. I jumped out of the seat and started throwing stuff as fast as possible to the rear of the airplane to raise the nose. Meanwhile the captain worked on the problem. I yelled throw the gear down which he did and that raised the nose a bit. That took some pressure off the yoke so he could think. Suddenly he noticed that the emergency trim was full down. He got the trim working and the aircraft leveled at 10000 about the same time that we got everything as far back in the airplane as possible. After landing we found that the Jepp book had jammed the emergency electric trim forward, causing the problem. I learned that night you don't mess around with Lears, things get real nasty real quick.
I have had hydraulic problems, engine fires, gear problems, engine failures, and fires, on Part 121 aircraft and ops. Never in the course of those emergencies did I ever get to the point that I thought I was in my last moments. Go slow, follow the procedures that have been bought in blood, and you will live a long safe life.
I have had hydraulic problems, engine fires, gear problems, engine failures, and fires, on Part 121 aircraft and ops. Never in the course of those emergencies did I ever get to the point that I thought I was in my last moments. Go slow, follow the procedures that have been bought in blood, and you will live a long safe life.
