CRJ700 flight crew reported being unable to get full right rudder deflection during pre-departure flight control check. After conferring with Maintenance; the flight crew decided to conduct the flight and later learned that an oil can was found pressing on rudder cables and could have contributed to the rudder deflection issue.
Synopsis
CRJ700 flight crew reported being unable to get full right rudder deflection during pre-departure flight control check. After conferring with Maintenance; the flight crew decided to conduct the flight and later learned that an oil can was found pressing on rudder cables and could have contributed to the rudder deflection issue.
Narrative
While completing the after start procedures; I noticed the rudder would get close but not go full deflection. The rudder pressure would also gradually increase as I pushed on the rudder pedal. I called Maintenance Control and they had nothing to offer except to send contract Maintenance out; they asked if I wanted to talk to the duty pilot. I talked to Person A the on call duty pilot and talked the situation over; he told me a few possibilities and after I discussed the situation over with the First Officer; we determined it was safe to continue.The reasoning for going and continuing the flight was a couple; the rudder was 98-95% full deflection which it was practically there. Talking to Person A one word of advice he passed on was a that he said something similar had happened with ailerons a little while back that wouldn't go full deflection and Maintenance said that that was okay. Another point of reasoning was talking to the First Officer and Person A that if the plane was deplaned would it most likely be ferrying it to figure it out and would I have any problem ferrying a plane in this condition I did think I would so I felt comfortable and safe with the demonstrated performance of 98% and realistically not needing full deflection of the rudder in normal flight so we took off and went to ZZZ1 and Maintenance Control asked me after the flight to have me write it up.I'm not sure what's the best solution here; I wasn't the first pilot to fly this plane that had this issue since I picked it up from another crew; I'm just the one that noticed it and brought it up to the company. I still believe I made the right call and that it was a safe aircraft since it was only the rudder and it was 98% functional. I'm happy to do what ever is decided that is best and learn from it.
Second reporter narrative
We were operating a flight from ZZZ to ZZZ1 in a CRJ 700. After pushback; the Captain was doing his rudder check per standard procedure and noticed that the rudder had a small gap from the furthest right deflection on the flight control page. The gap was probably around 2mm on the screen so it was very small on the display. The Captain had me test the rudder pedals and I had the same situation; the furthest right deflection left a small gap and I noticed a little more stiffness in the right deflection of the rudder than the left. After some discussion; the Captain called the duty pilot along with Maintenance to expand our team. The only information he got was that there is no MEL for the rudder deflection and that it is gonna be our call to decide if the rudder deflection is up to our standards. After their discussion; he spoke with me about my thoughts. We came to the conclusion that; since we were indicating nearly full right-scale and were able to achieve full left-scale deflection on the flight control page; that we were comfortable operating the flight to ZZZ1. I also hadn't recognized any disparities on the rudder during my external preflight which factored into our decision. We took off and had no further incident to ZZZ1. After landing; the Captain received a call from the company to have the issue written up so Maintenance could take a look at it just in case.A few days after operating the flight; I was reached out to by Company safety department saying that our Maintenance team actually found something that could've caused an issue with the rudder deflection. I was told that they discovered an oil can that was old and rusty leaning on some of the rudder cables inside the fuselage; which they believe might have been the cause for the rudder deflection stiffness and small gap.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.