CRJ200 experienced caution messages for inboard flight spoilers and spoilerons when spoilers were extended during descent. The crew was instructed by Dispatch to land with flaps up which they complied with successfully.
Synopsis
CRJ200 experienced caution messages for inboard flight spoilers and spoilerons when spoilers were extended during descent. The crew was instructed by Dispatch to land with flaps up which they complied with successfully.
Narrative
Getting ready for our arrival we got cleared down to 5000 FT and to expect a right downwind. In the descent and to slow the speed the First Officer brought out the spoilers. Once that happened we got a caution message of IB Flt Spoilers and IB Spoilerons. I went to the Flight Manual and it stated if the caution messages didn't go away to increase landing distance by 20% with reverser's and 25% without reverser's. The longest runway is 7200 FT and the winds were coming from the west and gusty. I looked at factored landing distance and added 20% and it showed me more than 8000 FT required. I wanted to talk to dispatch to see what they came up with for numbers because I didn't trust my math and I could have been looking at the wrong column. At this point I wanted to let the controller know that we had 6600 LBS of fuel and I was thinking that we need to make a decision to go to our alternate. I was having a hard time trying to get Dispatch and I told the controller that we were going to plan to go to our alternate. Once we got up to 10000 FT I was able to get a hold of them and they said the numbers were good for a zero flap landing and I was a little confused because it was a spoileron issue and I needed to know the distance for that because my math said differently. He said it was good and that there was 5571 FT. So now my thought is that for this particular runway they want us to do a zero flap landing. While I was talking to them he also said that he sent an ACARS message about the zero flap and now I made up my mind that we are going back to our original destination for a zero flap landing and in the process I sent them an ACARS that my caution message was for IB Flt Spoiler and IB Spoilerons. At this point I should have been more aggressive in questioning them and why they were giving me info for flaps zero. I felt like I was getting the run around and since we had number from dispatch for zero flaps we went ahead and planned for it and I declared and emergency since it was an abnormal landing. So at this point we were set to do the flap zero landing. I told the flight attendants and said to treat it like a normal landing and I also informed the passengers. My first officer was uncomfortable about doing the landing so I took the controls and landed the airplane successfully and without incident. I taxied to the gate and after the engines were shut off and officially parked I called dispatch. At this point dispatch was explaining how they factored the landing distance and I was just glad to be on the ground. I have definitely learned a lot from this experience and I will never forget it and I believe it has taught me to be a more efficient and better pilot. I think there was a mis-understanding which turned out OK but not the way I was intending. In the future; if something like this happens again I will make sure I have Maintenance with me on the radio or ACARS to make sure we are all on the same page. I will probably try to use ACARS first before trying the radio. I thought the radio would have been more efficient but not in this situation.
Second reporter narrative
On decent I the flying pilot pulled the spoilers to slow the aircraft down after being cleared down to 5000 FT. With the spoilers deployed we received a double caution IB FLT SPLRS and IB SPOILERON. As I continued to fly the airplane the Captain went into the emergency procedures in the FOM. For both cautions the procedure is to add 20% (with thrust reverser's) to the actual landing distance. The Captain then pulled out the paper landing data and did the math and came up with 8500 FT for our landing distance. She showed me how she came up with those numbers and we both agreed to them. The longest runway is 7200 FT; we elected to divert to our alternate where there is a runway length of 9500 FT. We let Approach know what our intentions were; and told them we needed to divert and to get a hold of our dispatch and let them know we had a SPOILER issue. The ACARS we received back was telling us to refer to zero flap landing. At that point with our fuel and having so much trouble relaying our actual problem we elected to set up for the zero flap landing given that dispatch gave us performance numbers that worked. We did question as to why we had to do a zero flap landing; but thought against disobeying what dispatch had said. We figured that maybe dispatch had some other reasoning behind the zero flap landing versus our other option of just adding 20% to our landing distance. We continued with the set up for the zero flap landing; I then turned the controls over to the Captain. She landed and we taxied to the gate safely. I believe this event occurred do to the unsuccessful communication with dispatch. They gave us information on an issue we weren't dealing with and we were unable to relay the actual problem.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.