A Citation Latitude pilot reported flap failure on climbout resulting in a return to departure airport.
Synopsis
A Citation Latitude pilot reported flap failure on climbout resulting in a return to departure airport.
Narrative
Flight control issues on departure climb from ZZZ-ZZZ1. I was right seat SIC co-captain. On initial climb fairly early CA complained pitch trim didn't feel right. Asked me if pitch trim was 'normal. It's normally down and it was in this case. No CAS Messages. It was bothering him enough that the conversation persisted. Said it didn't feel right. He was correct. AP (Auto Pilot) failed or he disconnected. Probably 10;000 ft at this point. Rudders began to pulsate about this time. Decision to slow and get delay/return vectors quickly turns into return divert and Advised ATC. Workload is high on PM with short return time and perception on ground is best place to be before this deteriorates further. Flaps 1 fairly early trying to test handling. Slower is better per CA. Flaps fail at selection to 1; quick reset per CA I agree. Fixes it for now. Flaps 2; flaps fail again. QRH started and flaps reset. I read ahead anticipating another failure. At flaps full they fail a 3rd time; I am able to reset and we conduct a normal landing. Clearing runway select flaps up and flaps stop at 1. We also received five amber CAS indications momentarily. I caught the first two flaps fail and primary trim stab fail. In each case when flaps are reset; handle position matches indicator except on ground where no reset is attempted but flaps are selected to up on after landing; flow. Taxi clear and have fire department check condition of aircraft; nothing abnormal detected. We proceed to Company X make appropriate reports and calls the company; short discussion with airport operations and Fire Department. Secure aircraft at flaps 1.Suggestions: None. Given complexity of multiple closely spaced failures we believe we addressed issues prudently.
Second reporter narrative
Aircraft X departed ZZZ and climbed into IMC conditions through 7;000 feet. At 12;000 feet ZZZ Departure issued a climb to 14;000 feet about 35nm North of ZZZ. At this point I; the pilot flying from the left seat; noted that the autopilot had commanded nearly full nose down trim. I spoke up to Person C and said this was not normal. Then both sets of rudder pedals shuddered aggressively like there was a sudden rudder flutter being experienced. I then stated I would disconnect the autopilot to hand fly at which time full nose down had been added by the autopilot which resulted in it being tripped off!I now maintained a rock-hard firm grip on the control yoke and with substantial pitch heaviness experienced I immediately leveled off and disengaged the autothrottles and reduced both throttles to idle. We rapidly slowed from our 250-270 Kts climb speed to 190 Kts.This; I believe; was the key to maintaining aircraft control. The control cables in the tail to the elevators and rudder were either binding; chaffing; but being restricted in their movements. The slower speeds relieved a good deal of the pressure however the pitch sensitivity was awful still. Normally pitch is light and sensitive on the Citation Latitude. Now the pitch was slow; heavy; and sluggish.We requested a descent back to 12;000 feet and advised ATC we were experiencing a serious flight control event and we would advise of our intentions shortly. We descended to 12;000 feet and felt the forces on the yoke. The pitch issue involving full nose down trim I had experienced about a year previous on another Citation Latitude. This situation was far worse since the rudder cables were effected as well.I then instructed Person C to Advise ATC roll the fire-rescue vehicles call. He input XXXX in our transponder. We then requested the 180 degree turn to return for immediate landing and descent to get back into VMC conditions. Descending to 5;000 feet in VMC we requested vectors to final for the ILS XXR. As we neared the localizer I requested flaps 1. We could feel and see on our MFD (Mulit-function Flight Display) flaps 1 indicated but a FLAPS FAIL CAS message appeared. I believe this was due to the horizontal stabilizer not achieving the proper angle due to all the problems inside the tail control cable compartment. We ran the QRC (Quick Reference Card) abnormal checklist to reset the flaps. This cleared the CAS message; but for each subsequent flap deployments (flaps 2 and flaps full) the use of the QRC was required to clear this same CAS message.We touched down on runway XXR and exited next to the emergency vehicles. After we stopped on the taxiway we briefly had a rash of CAS messages (AILERON CNTRL FAULT! PRI STAB TRIM FAIL; O2 PRESS LOW L? and FUEL CROSSFEED TRANSIT). The after landing flow and checklist was run. We then noticed that the flaps jammed at flaps 1. We asked ground control to have the fire chief drive around our aircraft to determine if anything looked out of place? He observed nothing unusual. We requested and received clearance to taxi back with the emergency vehicles following us.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.