Narrative:

During climb-out the rudder trim completely failed. We could find no procedure in the QRH or the flight manual (FM) dealing with this failure. As we strongly considered a return to our departure airport; but we wanted maintenance input. We tried contacting dispatch through the airinc frequency we were given. For more than 30 minutes we heard strange phone connection noises on the frequency as airinc attempted the dispatch connection. In the meantime; while climbing through 22;000 ft; the rudder trim suddenly started working again. We received a data ACARS message from dispatch that they had phone problems and had trouble getting through to us on VHF. Finally; after approximately an hour of fruitless attempts; we were able to patch through to maintenance control via dispatch/airinc on HF. By then; we had already decided to proceed as the trim system had been working continuously for some time. I am concerned that the requirement to maintain company contact is not working. Having read numerous reports regarding airinc communications problems and now experiencing first-hand how this system has become useless; I will add that in our case the help we were expecting from talking to maintenance instead became a huge distraction and greatly interfered with our flight duties. Had we decided to divert; we would have been on the ground before getting through to company. [We were] spending more than an hour listening to useless radio noise while switching back and forth to make position reports and constantly reassigning cockpit duties serves only to detract from safety. Additionally; the FM and QRH had no guidance for our particular problem; also served to distract.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier on an oceanic flight experienced rudder trim difficulties but was unable to communicate with Dispatch through AIRINC for coordination efforts.

Narrative: During climb-out the rudder trim completely failed. We could find no procedure in the QRH or the Flight Manual (FM) dealing with this failure. As we strongly considered a return to our departure airport; but we wanted maintenance input. We tried contacting Dispatch through the AIRINC frequency we were given. For more than 30 minutes we heard strange phone connection noises on the frequency as AIRINC attempted the Dispatch connection. In the meantime; while climbing through 22;000 FT; the rudder trim suddenly started working again. We received a data ACARS message from Dispatch that they had phone problems and had trouble getting through to us on VHF. Finally; after approximately an hour of fruitless attempts; we were able to patch through to Maintenance Control via Dispatch/AIRINC on HF. By then; we had already decided to proceed as the trim system had been working continuously for some time. I am concerned that the requirement to maintain company contact is not working. Having read numerous reports regarding AIRINC communications problems and now experiencing first-hand how this system has become useless; I will add that in our case the help we were expecting from talking to maintenance instead became a huge distraction and greatly interfered with our flight duties. Had we decided to divert; we would have been on the ground before getting through to company. [We were] spending more than an hour listening to useless radio noise while switching back and forth to make position reports and constantly reassigning cockpit duties serves only to detract from safety. Additionally; the FM and QRH had no guidance for our particular problem; also served to distract.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.