2025-02 · NASA ASRS report 2212901
CRJ-900 air carrier crew reported receiving a stick shaker when retracting the flaps and initiating a turn during the climb in turbulence. The pilot flying reduced pitch and the flight continued the flight.
I was First Officer (FO) and the pilot monitoring (PM). We departed ZZZ airport Runway XX after some thunderstorms had moved off to the east of the field. Just rain and gusty winds; low clouds; and turbulence remained. Running the radar on the runway before takeoff the departure path was just light to moderate precipitation. The Captain was pilot flying (PF) and was hand flying the departure. We were getting bounced around by occasional moderate turbulence and constant light turbulence. During departure while cleaning up the aircraft and retracting the final notch of flaps we had a momentary stick shaker event. Our airspeed was above the minimum final flap retraction speed of VFTO -15 and the Captain asked for flaps 0. I retracted the flaps; and our airspeed was hovering right around 200 KIAS. The airspeed had some fluctuation due to the light increasing to moderate turbulence. The Captain was at a normal pitch attitude of around 10-12 degrees trying to keep a constant pitch with the conditions. ATC gave us a left turn and we were climbing through about 3;000 MSL. We then hit an abrupt pocket of moderate turbulence. The low speed queue on the airspeed tape abruptly rose due to the momentary increase in load factor and AOA and we got a momentary stick shaker of around 1/2 a second. By the time I had time to process this and even attempt to callout 'pitch' or 'airspeed' the captain had already instinctively added forward pressure on the yoke to unload the wing; reduce AOA and stop the stick shaker. Therefore no further action or callout was needed. We continued the normal acceleration and continued the flight as normal.Cause: The combination of accelerating from VFTO-15 and retracting flaps resulted in us being at right around 200 KIAS at the start of the event. This is only an 8 knot margin above the maneuvering speed for a clean configuration at our takeoff weight. In bumpy air from moderate turbulence this can be a low margin. The turn further increased our load factor and therefore brought us closer to critical AOA. Combine this with the fluctuating airspeed from the turbulence and then the large moderate turbulence encounter. When we hit the pocket of moderate turbulence this caused our already fairly high load factor to further increase. The low speed queue and stick shaker are based on trend and AOA analysis. The aircraft saw the increasing AOA and therefore engaged the stick shaker. I also was just prior to the event setting the heading bug for the turn and ensuring that was set correctly. I believe I may have temporarily been too engrossed and distracted and was not as active as a PM as I could have been. My priority should have first been to ensure the acceleration of the aircraft was continuing as we were getting bumped around and then doing the heading bug after. Our recovery from the event was correct; due to good training and procedure knowledge the Captain immediately reduced AOA correcting the issue and preventing further problem.Suggestions: During turbulent conditions focusing on quicker acceleration after flap retraction in order to have more airspeed for turbulence encounters. I believe the Captains decision was correct in hand flying the departure in the turbulence as this gave us both a better feel for the conditions and helped prevent the Autopilot from chasing a speed. I as the PM could also have been more active in watching the airspeed and pitch trend and less distracted by setting the heading bug immediately. I could have waited a few more seconds to ensure the aircraft acceleration was continuing as planned as we were getting bumped around. The immediate correction the PF made to fix the situation goes to show the training and procedures we have trained for work well and prevented further issues such as a real stall or pusher event from occurring.
During climbout from ZZZ; stall shaker was triggered very briefly. Aircraft was in a left hand turn; and accelerating to VFTO. Shortly after selecting flaps up we encountered moderate turbulence. Due to the recently retracted flaps; and the turn; the stick shaker went off momentarily as a result of the increased load factor cause by the turbulence. I was hand flying at the time and reduced the angle of attack and bank angle and the shaker stopped. Estimated shaker time was in the region of one second. More moderate turbulence was encountered on climb out; but no further significant events occurred. We estimated the aircraft to be at approximately 180-190 kts. indicated; and about 10-12 degrees nose up pitch attitude and 20-25 degrees of bank.Cause: Cause of the stick shaker was a drastic increase in load factor resulting in turbulence encounter while in a turn and recently retracting flaps. Aircraft was in relatively normal pitch and bank for phase of flight; and at no point did it feel like the aircraft was out of control as a result of the turbulence or stick shaker. believe flap retraction could have waited to sure trend continued towards VFTO to ensure safe margin to maneuvering speed.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
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