Flight Crew reported a flap failure on departure and a return to the airport.
Synopsis
Flight Crew reported a flap failure on departure and a return to the airport.
Narrative
Upon flap retraction at 1;500 ft.; 160 to170 knot; OAT 26C; got 'FLAPS FAIL' EICAS caution message. Flap indicator on ED-1 showed 20 degrees and EICAS F/CTR page also showed flaps at 20 degrees and with yellow border; while flap lever itself was up at 0. Ran QRH; which had us put the flap lever to nearest higher setting which was 20. Per QRH; we would need 80% more fuel for equal range. With something like 6;000 lb. on board; and a normal burn at 3;500 lb; a quick in-the-head calculation showed that we'd be plumb out of fuel before even reaching the destination. I had leveled off at 10;000 ft.; still on vectors from Departure. I told the Departure Controller that we'd likely be returning shortly; After First Officer (FO) completed the QRH procedure; I notified dispatch and Maintenance Control while the FO flew and took the radios. The FO had already informed the Flight Attendant (FA); and I then told the passengers why we'd have to return to our origin. We received RLS 1 from our Dispatcher after a while; at which point the fuel on arrival put us right at our maximum landing weight of 47;000 lb. Because of our fast landing speed; I notified the Controller to have the fire trucks meet and greet us.We got landing numbers for 47;000 lb; flaps 20 deg.; which showed about 1;500 ft. excess runway; and then maneuvered per ATC for a visual approach. After a successful landing; we taxied to the gate without incident. I gave a quick report to the firemen and an airport cop of some sort. We deplaned; and the FO got Maintenance Control on the phone; and we were told we'd run flap fail/flap tracking MEL. We did CB reset; at which point the flaps went up to 0 as they should have; cycled flaps 5 x per MEL; with no discrepancies; wrote up the problem and corrective action in the MM01/MM02; installed the sticker; got re-fueled; and went on to the destination. Mechanical problem with usual suspects. No suggestions; but just praise for this very workable MEL for flap failure and further tracking. I've been on the other end of this one before; but this was something we pilots could accomplish at the gate together. Nice job with the MEL!
Second reporter narrative
On departure out of ZZZ for ZZZ1 the crew experienced the a FLAPS FAIL event. The issue occurred about 15 seconds after Vr; and was identified by the crew when the flaps were placed in the 0 degree position and no movement of the flaps was indicated on the Primary EICAS display. The crew ran the QRH while the Captain Pilot Flying (PF) maintained a suitable airspeed below 200 kts. After the QRH was completed the crew coordinated with Dispatch; notified the Flight Attendant with an air return back to ZZZ and prepared for a flaps 20 degree landing back at ZZZ. We notified ATC of our intentions and requested to have the ARFF trucks on standby in case of a runway overrun. ATC [gave us priory handling] on our behalf and gave us vectors to final. The landing was completed successfully and with plenty of runway to spare. After taxiing to the gate Maintenance Control was notified and a fault reset procedure was completed by the crew on the ground after passenger deplaning. The crew was able to complete the fault reset procedure and depart ZZZ later that day.Frankly; I cannot give a cause to how or why this event occurred. the CRJ200 is an older aircraft and older aircraft occasionally have the malfunctions. This incident was one of those malfunctions. No suggestions on this; all parties involved acted as they were trained to do and the state of the aircraft and safety of flight was never in question.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.