An md-82 flight crew experienced an unusually stiff elevator control during climb; and determined th...

Narrative:

On climbout passing FL180 the elevator control became unusually stiff as if the autopilot was engaged. I clicked the a/P disconnect switch; no change. I notified the first officer and had him try his yoke; and he agreed that it did not feel normal. The pitch trim operated normally. I requested a level-off at FL220 and consulted the QRH; followed by checking the weather conditions at several other airports. We determined that with a control problem it would be best to land at an airport with VFR conditions and a long runway into the wind. All airports other than ZZZ1 had IFR weather or gusty winds at the time. We declared an emergency with center and were cleared direct ZZZ1. We asked the controller to notify dispatch for us which he agreed to do. Descended towards ZZZ1 and completed a visual approach to runway 10 with a long final. The stiffness of the pitch control remained through landing. They offered the safety equipment to standby and we accepted; and after an uneventful landing the arff chief saw nothing obviously wrong. I taxied to the gate where we were debriefed by maintenance.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An MD-82 flight crew experienced an unusually stiff elevator control during climb; and determined that the problem did not include the autopilot or the electric trim system. An emergency was declared and the aircraft was diverted to the nearest suitable airport.

Narrative: On climbout passing FL180 the elevator control became unusually stiff as if the autopilot was engaged. I clicked the A/P disconnect switch; no change. I notified the First Officer and had him try his yoke; and he agreed that it did not feel normal. The pitch trim operated normally. I requested a level-off at FL220 and consulted the QRH; followed by checking the weather conditions at several other airports. We determined that with a control problem it would be best to land at an airport with VFR conditions and a long runway into the wind. All airports other than ZZZ1 had IFR weather or gusty winds at the time. We declared an emergency with Center and were cleared direct ZZZ1. We asked the Controller to notify Dispatch for us which he agreed to do. Descended towards ZZZ1 and completed a visual approach to Runway 10 with a long final. The stiffness of the pitch control remained through landing. They offered the safety equipment to standby and we accepted; and after an uneventful landing the ARFF chief saw nothing obviously wrong. I taxied to the gate where we were debriefed by Maintenance.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1083034
Time
Date	201304
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.ARTCC
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	MD-82
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Elevator
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

An md-82 flight crew experienced an unusually stiff elevator control during climb; and determined that the problem did not include the autopilot or the electric trim system. An emergency was declared and the aircraft was diverted to the nearest suitable airport.