2025-07 · NASA ASRS report 2264658
B757-200 flight crew reported malfunction with yaw damper causing dutch roll.
As soon as the aircraft broke ground I felt a shake in the rudder pedals. At approximately 500ft AGL the aircraft began an uncommanded Dutch Roll. The roll worsened as we accelerated and moved from flaps 5 to flaps 1. I decided to stop the acceleration at approximately 220KIAS and turn off the auto throttle and level off at 3000ft MSL. My goal was to make sure I had full control of the aircraft to aid in determine what was happening. We had no cockpit indication of anything other issues other than the Dutch Roll. At this point I decided to request priority handling and perform an air turn back to ZZZ.After requesting priority handling with ZZZ Approach we requested short vectors for a visual approach to Runway XX. The Dutch Roll continued during the entire approach and landing sequence. Of note; when I we moved the flaps back to 5 the Dutch Roll was not as aggressive. On short final at approximately 300-400ft AGL the R Yaw Damper EICAS message appeared. I opted to land; with the agreement of the First Officer (FO); instead of go around due to the nature of our problem. After landing we terminated the priority handling and taxied to parking uneventfully. Cause: This event was caused by an issue with the rudder on takeoff. I received an email stating the R Yaw Damper had some problems and was replaced.
After completing the flight control check; a rudder psu status message populated on screen. We decided it was authorised to continue and place the message in the logbook on arrival in ZZZ. After departure; the Captain asked me if I could feel the side to side occilations that I think could best be decribed as dutch roll. I did indeed. As we accerated; the ' tail wagging' of the aircraft was becoming more intense. We had no fault message on the EICAS and specificly remember stating that all items in the memo were associated the the Generater on MEL. We requested priority handling; and I set us up for XX. The Captain was hand flying the aircraft and flew a downwind base visual. At some point on final; the yaw damp EICAS populated. The aircraft was stabilised and we thought it best to land rather than take the aircraft into a goaround with dutch roll. We landed and cancelled the priority handling. Cause: Prior to this flight; we had a gate return due to a gen failure and crosstie lock out. Maintenance placed the Gen on MEL and we continued. Though our flight control problem appears to have come from the rudder; I suspect electrical problems could be contributing.
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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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