That time a faulty pitch servo tried to kill me over Tennessee

I was about 15 miles west of Nashville in a 172 doing an autopilot check. On approach to runway 31, the pitch servo jammed nose-down and the trim wheel started spinning on its own. I had to grab the yoke with both hands while reaching for the autopilot disconnect breaker with my knee. It took about 6 seconds of fighting it before I got the breaker pulled and the nose came back up. Has anyone else seen a KAP-140 servo lock up like that without throwing a failure flag first?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_seth2mo ago

At least the trim wheel saved you a workout on the yoke.

nathan_bailey20d ago

The whole thing about saving a workout on the yoke is weird to me. Like, it's just yanking on a wheel for a few seconds, not running a marathon. People act like turning a trim wheel is some huge ordeal that deserves a medal. Pilots back in the day flew without autopilot for hours and somehow survived. Maybe we should be a little more worried about becoming lazy than saving a tiny bit of arm movement. It comes off like folks are just looking for something to complain about when the real flying is what matters.

felix_jones2mo ago

Funny you mention that @the_seth, it's kind of like how people try to automate every little thing these days instead of just putting in the work. Sometimes the manual way is the whole point.