Well Done Award: United States Air Force

Flying Safety, August, 2002 by Tony D. Bauernfeind

The Aviation Well Done Award is presented for outstanding airmanship and professional performance during a hazardous situation and for a significant contribution to the United States Air Force Mishap Prevention Program.

On 10 January 2001, 3.5 hours into an overwater flight, the MC-130H became uncontrollable due to a failure of the elevator trim system. The resultant nose-down pitch disengaged the autopilot and the aircraft immediately began losing altitude. While countering the excessive nose-down pull, the aircraft commander, Capt Bauernfeind, noticed the aircraft's trim gauge was indicating 25 degrees nose up (even though the yoke was commanding nose down). The trim was not responsive to any trim switch inputs (in either the normal or emergency modes). As the nose down pull was in excess of what he expected, he directed the copilot to assist in handling the aircraft.

All attempts to troubleshoot the trim malfunction failed to correct the problem. Since the effort to control the aircraft on brute force alone for an extended time was more than they could handle, Capt Bauernfeind ordered that a cargo strap be brought to the cockpit to help secure the yoke. With the 5000 lb. strap wrapped around the copilot's seat and yoke, they tightened it until most of the pressure was alleviated, and Capt Bauernfeind and his copilot were able to trade time at the controls and rest their arms. The crew began dumping fuel to decrease the weight of the aircraft, and the loadmasters moved cargo as far aft as practical, to shift the center of gravity and help alleviate the nose-down condition.

The closest suitable airfield was over 220 NM to the west of their position, and due to the slower flight required to minimize the airload on the elevator, this location was about an hour away. After a controllability check at 11,000 feet MSL, they deemed the aircraft controllable down to 100% flap touchdown speed. The controllability check was accomplished without the cargo strap around the yoke, and afterward the strap was reapplied and flaps were brought to 50% to quicken the enroute time. When they descended to 1200 MSL they broke out of the clouds approximately 20 NM away from the airfield.

Capt Bauernfeind flew a 100% approach and landing with both hands on the yoke while the copilot controlled the throttles. A very sizable pull was required to achieve a safe flare and landing. On rollout, Capt Bauernfeind resumed control of the throttles and taxied the aircraft to the military ramp and the engines were shut down.

A maintenance inspection revealed that the trim motor had catastrophically failed, driving the elevator trim tabs past the electronic stops (6 degrees) and the mechanical stops (8 degrees), and had overtorqued the four jack screws attached to the elevator trim tabs in driving the trim tabs downward.