A md-80 captain detected an inoperative elevator trim but because the aircraft was in a circling app...

Narrative:

Circle to land 13 in VMC conditions. During the breakaway maneuver half way through the circle [procedure] I realized that I could only trim back and not forward. Tried copilot yoke switch; suitcase handles and secondary trim to no avail. It trimmed back and not forward. We briefly did the QRH checklist and in less time than it took to read this we were landing. 'Aviate; navigate then communicate'; no time to declare an emergency as we landed right away. The airplane was perfectly trimmed (trim back during landing) and did not want to execute a go-around with a jammed trim unable to trim forward. Textbook wise I should have declared an emergency to be ready to use my captain's authority and I'm never shy about declaring emergencies but believe me this happened very quickly the airport was fine and we had already gotten our clearance to land and I just wanted to concentrate on landing as soon as possible and not experimenting around with the horizontal stabilizer trim in flight (similar to other md-80 trim/jackscrew incidents).I was subsequently able to fix the problem by refusing the offending airplane and getting a new one for my leg back.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A MD-80 Captain detected an inoperative elevator trim but because the aircraft was in a circling approach VMC with the airport in sight; no emergency was declared and flight landed as soon as possible in trim.

Narrative: Circle to land 13 in VMC conditions. During the breakaway maneuver half way through the circle [procedure] I realized that I could only trim back and not forward. Tried copilot yoke switch; Suitcase handles and secondary trim to no avail. It trimmed back and not forward. We briefly did the QRH Checklist and in less time than it took to read this we were landing. 'Aviate; Navigate then Communicate'; no time to declare an emergency as we landed right away. The airplane was perfectly trimmed (trim back during landing) and did NOT want to execute a go-around with a jammed trim unable to trim forward. Textbook wise I SHOULD have declared an emergency to be ready to use my Captain's authority and I'm never shy about declaring emergencies BUT believe me this happened very quickly the airport was fine and we had already gotten our clearance to land and I just wanted to concentrate on landing ASAP and not experimenting around with the horizontal stabilizer trim in flight (similar to other MD-80 trim/jackscrew incidents).I was subsequently able to fix the problem by refusing the offending airplane and getting a new one for my leg back.

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	1092193
Time
Date	201306
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	MD-82
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Landing
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Elevator Trim System
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Total 18000
Person 2
Function	Pilot Not Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

A md-80 captain detected an inoperative elevator trim but because the aircraft was in a circling approach VMC with the airport in sight; no emergency was declared and flight landed as soon as possible in trim.