Originally Posted by
captain152
I think you and I are on the same page, but just saying things a little differently...
I think you could muster enough force to control the plane to the point of recovery, but if it caught you off guard and you had ice on the wings ... it might be game over before you even try.
That's a scary story on your end though, glad you made it out safely! Having a runaway trim is NEVER fun! I remember one time they gave us a runaway trim and then failed the main trim, so after about 3-5 seconds of trying to figure out what in the world happened I finally went to the standby trim and it worked like a charm. It's amazing how fast your brain works when it's in overdrive
True. The few times I've been given a trim loss/runaway situation in the ATR, I could deal with it. The lightly loaded EMB-135 at TO thrust would of had no problem either going vertical or stalling/shaker-pusher first and even at 6'4" and 215 pounds, I would have never been strong enough to prevent it without a power reduction............the pitch force necessary WAS that strong.
Also remember the aircraft will trim itself with the autopilot on, but when off (such as after disconnect by the stick shaker), it's up to the pilot to trim. In talking to some SF3 drivers, that aircraft can apparently be overpowered by the pilot, but in my 7500 hours in the EMB, I know that at a low trimmed airspeed and a light aircraft at max thrust, it is unlikely, if not impossible.
I'd be curious as to what foward stick pressure would be required to keep a lightly loaded Q400 trimmed to 135 knots and full power from either stalling or prevent the pusher from activating. I'll bet it's surprisingly high.