Air Carrier B767-300 flight crew reported returning to departure airport after experiencing elevator anomalies.
Synopsis
Air Carrier B767-300 flight crew reported returning to departure airport after experiencing elevator anomalies.
Narrative
Climbing through 14000 ft.; we encountered continuous light turbulence. I associated it with the mountains we were flying by. During the climb; the turbulence started to resemble a problem with the yaw damper. I selected the status page to reference the rudder indicator. The rudder indication was steady; but at that time; we noticed the right elevator indicator was fluctuating about a 1/4 up and down from neutral. I disengaged the autopilot to see if the autopilot was the problem. The oscillations continued with the autopilot off. We advised our Dispatcher and ATC that we would be returning to ZZZ. On level out; the oscillations decreased; but showed slight fluctuations up and down on the elevator indicator for the remainder phases of flight. I would like to add that upon our arrival; an MD11 was cleared for take-off before we landed. In our flare; we encountered wake turbulence from that departure. Although I'm sure there was proper separation time; some consideration should have been made with an aircraft inbound with known flight control issues. Also as the MD11 crossed the ILS threshold; we were following the glide slope which commanded a pitch down from the interference of the crossing aircraft.
Second reporter narrative
While climbing on the SID out of ZZZ; we noted what initially appeared to be some light turbulence around 15000 [ft.] MSL. As we climbed; the 'turbulence' remained constant and steady which seemed abnormal. Though there were no cockpit indications; we initially thought there may be a yaw damper problem. Upon looking at status page; we saw that the right elevator was oscillating above and below the neutral position while the left remained steady. PF (Pilot Flying) disconnected the autopilot and the issue remained. We leveled off short of cruise altitude to assess the oscillations. Though reduced in cruise; there was still slight movement. We coordinated with Dispatch and ATC to return to ZZZ. It is worth noting that Tower cleared an MD-11 for take-off just prior to our arrival while we were on a 3 mile final. There was some wake turbulence in the flare that would have been problematic had we had any sort of controllability issue. We should have asked Tower to hold that traffic prior to our arrival.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.