This is not a need answer quick situation 
What is a pilot supposed to do if the airplane tail elevator or a wing aileron is jammed in its up or down position and cannot be un-jammed? Seems that this would either send the aircraft towards the ground pretty quickly, or keep it rolling and banking and unable to get to level flight.
Any malfunction in a flight control surface is very serious, not just ailerons. E.g, if the flaps deploy on one wing and not the other, the plane can become uncontrollable. For this reason all those mechanisms are designed to prevent this. For flaps on large commercial planes there is an asymmetry detector which compares how far the flaps move on each side and stop deployment if any difference is detected.
For small planes the mechanical design of flight control actuation is as simple and robust as possible. Controls are checked before each flight so a jammed aileron or uneven flap deployment is very rare.
Chuck Yeager related an incident where his ailerons locked up while flying inverted in an F-86. In this situation he deduced the problem and managed to overcome it: http://characterqualitystories.com/cqs/node/394
Each aircraft has unique contingency procedures so there is no single method which would work for a jammed aileron. Some aircraft like the F-15 have differential elevators so even if the ailerons jam in a roll the elevators can often fight this. The most extreme case was an Israeli F-15 which landed with most of one wing torn off from a mid-air collision. This caused an extreme asymmetrical lift condition, far beyond jammed ailerons:
I’m not a pilot. I did fly model aircraft when younger, so my WAG is slightly more than a guess.
For the elevator: the pilot may be able to adjust the trim in order to level the plane. If the trim is insufficient; that plane is going to stall and crash (if stuck in the up position) or dive and crash (if stuck in the down position). There’s no easy way out of this.
As for the ailerons: in a twin (or multi) engine plane extremely careful use of the throttles could help. It would still be possible to manage yaw using the rudder; while using variable thrust to manage the roll.
In a single engine I believe you would crash quite quickly if you can’t regain aileron control.
In either case you’d better be a very good pilot.
I saw a youtube video from a guy who was learning how to be a pilot and the elevator jammed. The instructor took over the flight immediately and used the trim as best as he could. The elevator wasn’t completely jammed as it still had some movement, but its movement was limited. The instructor declared an emergency and they made a beeline back to the airport. As he didn’t have much elevator control he had to do a fairly shallow landing but otherwise they had no problems and landed safely.
Alaska Airlines flight 261 had the elevator jam due to a faulty jackscrew (and poor maintenance). They ended up hitting the water inverted at a high rate of speed. There were obviously no survivors. If you listen to the ATC tapes the pilots do say that they managed to get a little bit of control over the plane for a bit, but they weren’t able to maintain control and the crash was all but inevitable.
If the elevator becomes detached from its control instead of jamming, the plane will tend to fly like a porpoise. It will climb until the speed drops, and then it will sink until the speed increases, and when the speed increases it will start to climb again until the speed drops, and then it sinks, etc. Three planes that I know of have had this problem, all due to complete failures of all of their redundant hydraulic links. Not only did they lose the elevator, but they lost all other controls as well. By varying the thrust they could climb or sink, and by giving more thrust to one engine over the other they could turn. They didn’t have much control though. One plane crashed into the mountains in Japan. Another was the famous Sioux City crash where they were at least able to get back to the airport but couldn’t control the plane well enough to land safely. The third was a DHL cargo plane that got hit by a missile in Iraq and that pilot actually managed to land it safely, though he did skid off of the runway.
Yes, an unmovable control surface is extremely serious - probably unrecoverable in most aircraft most of the time.
As noted, trim and power changes might be useful in a case where elevator control was lost (provided the elevator was not too far from its neutral position).
A single jammed aileron might be recoverable if the opposite one was still operable (unlikely).
A single jammed flap could be handled by setting the position of the other wing’s flap to match.
Why would a locked elevator not also result in phugoids? I’ve seen this behavior in paper airplanes (which have fixed elevator flaps).
There is a certain amount of redundancy in the control circuits of airliners.
The Dash 8 and BAe146 both have separate elevator controls connected to each control column. The captain’s column controls the left elevator and the FO’s controls the right elevator. The columns are connected via a disconnect mechanism so if the elevator becomes jammed you can disconnect the two sides and hopefully one pilot will have a free elevator to use.
Aileron jams are managed in a similar way, the captain’s wheel is connected to the roll spoilers and the FO’s to the ailerons. The wheels are connected via a disconnect system so normally both wheels control both systems but if either system becomes jammed the wheels can be disconnected and the free system used for control. If both circuits are jammed, rudder can be used for a certain amount of roll control and the aileron trim may also be effective.
A fun game to play in the simulator is to jam one pilot’s elevator and the other pilot’s roll control so they each have control over just one axis of movement.
Been there, done that.
Friday, April 13th, 1973, North Central Oklahoma, a hot & rough morning, doing pipe line patrolling of flight G-2A. A fun field system to fly but on this day, a bad way to start the last day of the workweek.
I was in my usual aircraft, good old ‘900.’
This was a fun field to fly, it worked out just like a dance with full deflection of controls flowing into a wonderful dance with the aircraft as your partner. The start was a bit tricky as it was Northbound and there was usually a South wind in that area and that day was no different. It was a 130° cut back to the left, S/W and it would sneak up on you. “Damn, there it is.” And I slammed in full left aileron and rudder with just enough elevator to stay out of the dirt. Stood up on the left wingtip, made the turn without losing sight of the line and went to bring 900 back to level. The control wheel would not rotate at ALL. It was locked in the full left position.
Time went to a crawl. ( Probably 2/10ths of a second actually passed, seemed like forever. )
Now I was more inverted about 30 feet from the ground, pushed a bit of FWD pressure and let her come on around while dancing on the rudder at times that seemed like a good idea. Coming back upright, I went to full power, full top rudder and she was going to go around anyway.
This would kill us both so I just stood against the rudder pedals, lifted myself sorta up and with two hands on the control; wheel put everything into turning that wheel back to neutral.
I could feel metal ripping & grinding, it felt like I was ripping a pulley out of the wing but I did not care, that roll had to stop NOW… And it did…
So there I sat, full top rudder, (right), partial left aileron, full power, an airspeed gauge that said I was stalled, right at tree top height with the nose to the far right of the flight path heading up a gentle slope. I froze in terror, which was the smartest thing I could have done.
It I tried to straighten the yaw, that would slow the leading wing ( left one ) just enough to stall it, me & 900 die.
We have not stalled YET and we might just clear the trees, the little Continental engine it doing it’s best, the Cessna wing has not lost it’s grip on the airflow and I was breathing real careful and wishing there would be a gentle shift in the wind on the top of the slope past the trees. There was !!!
I eased the aircraft straight as I could get it, gaining precious airspeed and altitude. After a year or so, ( actually about 10 seconds, maybe ) I decided I need to rip up the wing a bit more and have a better chance of continued flight. I needed my legs to stop shaking first. Putting a scary amount of effort into turning the control wheel I had gotten to the point that I thought I might be able to stay in the air. Now to find out where I was. I was going the wrong way by almost exactly 180°…
Such a gentle & careful turn you have never seen done better, I had herded 900 into the correct direction, called ther oil company I was doing that flight for and told them that I did not feel like finishing it today and I was going back home. As they had no inductions of trouble on their instruments, they were fine with that. "Like I cared if they cared… NOT. "
Got close to TUL and called them, told them what I wanted to do and they more or less gave me the whole airport to do whatever I felt like. “Neat.” My plan was to get down without bending me or anything else worse than it already was. I did not use the word, ‘mayday’ or ‘emergency’ or ‘unknown’ or any other word that would require much paperwork & hassle. The whole control crew knew all of the local everyday pilots quite well and since we always did everthing in our power to make life easy for them, we got the same in return. A lovely working relationship.
I did !!!
Taxied to our hanger area and was met by my Chief Pilot. I just walked by him & headed for my DrPepper & cigarette. He went to look at the plane. About 15 minutes later he comes in and says, “You will not believe this.”
Outside and back to 900 we go.
That morning, I had dropped off the transponder at the radio repair and watched the mechanic tape up the antenna lead to the firewall with ‘masking tape.’ That was my first mistake. I know better but that day …
Had a rough morning and that had shaken the lead down to where it was swinging free.
Next I almost missed my first turn into the field system so I had banked & pulled strongly & suddenly which combined with a bump to :::::::::::::::::
Cause the connector on the end of the cable to get into the scissors bar of the yoke system which it can only do at full deflection with the control wheel fully pulled towards the pilot and coming in a straight line which it could only do if it was taped to the firewall at a certain amount of looseness.
A million to one with a million to one on top of another million to one series of events to produce this event.
Had I not been very very lucky, not listened to older pilots & their stories, not asked the airplane to do something that it was not designed to do, well, my flying would have ended that day.
I had very close to 2600 hrs total time on that day so I I was at one of the most dangerous times in a pilots life.
500 hrs = thinks he knows everything
1500 hrs = knows that he knows everything
2500 to 5000 hrs, does not care about careful because he never forgets to be careful so things start to slip by without checking. YMMV
I had another one in a Cherokee 180 on a maintenance test flight with another older wiser pilot but I can’t find the entry right now but it included a shop rag, elevators that were getting tighter & tighter and landing with me holding the control still in the for/aft position so it could not move and using the trim instead of the elevator to make the landing.
We had to think backward on that landing.
Links to my log book and a pic of 900 that go with this event.
*
900 is the older one in the middle.*
Here’s an example of what can happen when the elevators (or more specifically cockpit yoke) get jammed in one position. Link.
Short version - stall, crash, death - all within 28 seconds.
United 232 (DC-10) is the one that immediately comes to mind.
A lot of people still died, but I think what this flight crew did to get this on the ground in any shape at all is one of the most remarkable efforts in the history of aviation.
Yikes!
And then I thought of United 232, which just figured in (or was OP?) a GQ thread…
a full up elevator doesn’t mean the plane has to climb until it stalls. There is more than one axis involved and the pilot can turn the plane so that the climb is now a banking maneuver. This can be alternated left/right in order to fly from point A to point B.
Landing is a lot trickier as it has to be a banking decent to a stall at ground level. Probably best done over water. This was actually done in a DC8 in MHR and the crew was successful until landing and then it went badly. It was at night and they missed the runway. Had they landed with sufficient flat space they may have succeeded.
Wow! Thanks for taking the time to share! The diversity that allows us to hear this kind of first-hand experience for so many different questions is why I come to the 'Dope.
They just take the stairs instead.
Assuming the elevator is jammed at full deflection, doesn’t this just mean you’re going to bleed off airspeed and eventually stall while turning?
Isn’t that what happened to Alaska flight 261?
This crash still gives me nightmares even today; what a horrible way to go.
No. You’re controlling altitude with power and airspeed with the maneuver. The crew was able to get the plane back to the airport.
The problem is that you need a massively flat area and not a thin runway to attempt a landing. Imagine trying to bank around at a low altitude and bleed off airspeed at the end of the turn so you stall close to the ground. It’s a one shot hail Mary.
I’m going to walk my post back. After looking it up there is more to the crash and it’s not what I’d heard at the time it happened.
They only regained some control when the nut on the screw jack shaft finally stripped and the horizontal stabilizer jammed against the physical limits of the control mechanism (something it’s not designed to do). After a minute or two the whole mechanism failed due to the excessive stress and the horizontal stabilizer became completely free-floating and hence the plane became uncontrollable.
I thought you were going to link to this youtube video which is a graphic example of what happens when the controls are locked.