What To Do When You Lose Elevator Control?

Losing a primary flight control is never something a pilot wants to have happen. But if you do lose elevator control, there are strategies to help keep the aircraft in the sky.

In most aircraft, the elevator controls are manipulated by an “up” cable and a “down” cable that connect to the flight stick in the cockpit. According to the FAA’s Airplane Flying Handbook, a break or disconnect in one of these cables does not normally result in a total loss of elevator controls, but a partial loss of pitch controls.

If the “up” elevator cable fails, the control yoke should be able to move aft easily, but produce no response in the control surface. This would feel similar to pulling the control yoke back during a preflight check, where there is no airflow to give any pressure feedback. While the down elevator cable is intact, forward control pressure would cause the aircraft to nose down. If this happens, to maintain nose-up pitch control, you can try applying lots of nose-up trim, pushing the control yoke forward to reach and maintain the desired attitude, increase forward pressure to lower the nose and relax forward pressure to raise the nose, or release forward pressure to flare for landing.

If the “down” elevator cable fails, forward movement of the control yoke will produce no effect. If the “up” control cable is still intact, the pilot should still have partial control over nose-up pitch attitude with aft control pressure. To maintain nose-down pitch control, you can apply nose-down trim, pull back on the control yoke to attain and maintain attitude, release back pressure to lower the nose or increase back pressure to raise the nose, or increase back pressure to flare for landing.

If the entire linkage between control and the elevator fails in flight, the pilot will be left completely without nose-up or nose-down pitch control through the yoke or stick. Elevator pitch trim, however, is an isolated system with its own separate control cables. Therefore, the trim tab can be used to move the elevator up or down. However, trim tabs are less effective at low speeds, so if you need to use trim to control pitch for a landing, you should use the longest runway possible, and as much airspeed as that runway permits. The aircraft will be slower to respond to pitch up and down commands through the trim tabs, but there will be some degree of control over it.

If the elevator is completely jammed and elevator control movement is totally lost, a combination of power and flap extensions can provide a limited amount of pitch control, but the effectiveness of this strategy depends on the aircraft’s design.