Pilot flying C-402 aircraft after recent maintenance work on the aileron control cable reported flight control anomaly during climb out. Pilot returned to departure airport and returned plane for maintenance.

ACN 2029651 2023-08 Cessna 402/402C/B379 Businessliner/Utiliner Global Positioning (GPS) Reports

Climb

What is ASRS?

The Aviation Safety Reporting System is NASA's voluntary, confidential, non- punitive incident-reporting system, established 1976. Pilots, controllers, dispatchers, and maintenance technicians file reports describing safety- relevant events. NASA de-identifies every report before adding it to the public database. Reports are not investigated by NASA, the FAA, or the NTSB — they represent the reporter's perspective.

Pilot narrative

Verbatim from the de-identified NASA record. First-person account by the reporter. NASA strips identifying details (names, company, specific time); anonymization placeholders are ZZZ, X, Y.

I was scheduled to fly Aircraft X to ZZZ1. The airplane had recently been cleared by maintenance after work on the aileron control cable. I paid attention to the aileron surface deflections on the preflight. They looked symmetrical. I completed the pre flight and all checklists and took off. While climbing out, the aircraft strongly wanted to roll to the left and rapidly rolled left several times. Due to the gusty turbulent conditions, the ball was jumping left to right, but I maintained positive aircraft control and attempted to retrim. The airplane appeared under control. I engaged the autopilot, and the autopilot failed to navigate in GPS steer mode, and commanded a rapid roll to the left. I attempted to use the GPS disconnect red button on the yoke but the GPS annunciations indicated that it was still engaged. I turned it off with the switch and requested a return to the field. The controller asked if I wanted a long downwind or to stay near the shore, and I indicated that I would like to stay near the shore for a vector to final for runway XX which was the active in ZZZ. I Intercepted the final approach course and landed runway XX in ZZZ. On final the controls seemed asymmetrical but the aircraft remained under positive control. I landed taxied in and wrote up the plane. I really believe that; following maintenance which involves the flight controls, a FCF (functional check flight) should be performed, prior to releasing the aircraft. In this case all laws and procedures were followed and the aircraft was at best extremely out of trim following the maintenance that had been performed. While there are indications on the trim devices, and those were checked in preflight, there can be alot of variability between individual aircraft. At worse, the flight control rigging was more of a correction that was called for based on any lack of cable tension that had been previously found. The GPS disconnect I am not sure; it may just be that it was raining quite a lot and water got on to the yoke. Require an FCF flight for any flight control re-riggings prior to releasing the aircraft.

NASA classification — Anomalies

Aircraft Equipment Problem
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural

NASA classification — Assessments

Contributing Factors / Situations: Aircraft · Human Factors · Procedure
Primary Problem: Procedure

ASRS reports are voluntarily submitted, de-identified by NASA, and represent the reporter's perspective. The presence of reports on a topic cannot be used to infer prevalence in the National Airspace System. The authoritative source is the NASA ASRS Database Online at asrs.arc.nasa.gov ↗.