Narrative:

Upon rotating; I noticed the airplane wanted to roll to the left rather noticeably with the controls neutral. We climbed out while I held right aileron to prevent the aircraft from rolling left. After we were above flap retraction altitude (fra); I elected to clean up the airplane and then take stock of my trim settings again. They had been neutral when we ran the before start pushback check but I wanted to verify the setting. They were still neutral; but I noticed the ball was deflected out to the right a bit. I corrected by adding right rudder trim to see if that would help the roll tendency. It did not. At that point; I had my first officer engage the autopilot and I texted maintenance via ACARS about the situation and was met with a reply from dispatch/maintenance to air return. We notified ATC that we needed to return and set about getting the airplane down to a more acceptable landing weight as we headed back. I also notified our flight attendant about the air return; the nature of the situation and informed him that I did not anticipate anything but a normal landing. I also made a PA to the passengers informing them that we had a mechanical issue that we had under control but as a precaution we were returning. I elected to lower the gear once I slowed below 250 knots to increase drag and my burn. I could see and sense the autopilot still struggling to keep the airplane from rolling so I uncoupled the autopilot and the airplane again wanted to roll left. I started adding right aileron trim and ended up finding that it took about 1/3 full scale deflection to the right to keep the right wing down. We flew a long final; configured early and ended up landing in an overweight landing around 46.300 pounds with as minimal a sink rate as possible. We stopped normally; taxied clear of the runway and returned to the gate normally. Threats were an aircraft that was not responding normally as I would expect it to; difficulty understanding my flight attendant at times; and maintenance control (mx) asking me more detailed questions about my issue when I was still dealing with it. I feel that as the captain and part of an excellent crew; we handled the situation as best as we could and performed well. On the company standpoint; I think we should limit responses to an aircraft in distress to just the dispatcher unless mx is specifically requested to help troubleshoot an ongoing problem not yet under control.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EMB145 Captain experiences a strong rolling tendency as the aircraft lifts off. After discussions with Maintenance Control and Dispatch the flight returns to the departure airport for an overweight landing.

Narrative: Upon rotating; I noticed the airplane wanted to roll to the left rather noticeably with the controls neutral. We climbed out while I held right aileron to prevent the aircraft from rolling left. After we were above Flap Retraction Altitude (FRA); I elected to clean up the airplane and then take stock of my trim settings again. They had been neutral when we ran the before start pushback check but I wanted to verify the setting. They were still neutral; but I noticed the ball was deflected out to the right a bit. I corrected by adding right rudder trim to see if that would help the roll tendency. It did not. At that point; I had my First Officer engage the autopilot and I texted maintenance via ACARS about the situation and was met with a reply from dispatch/maintenance to air return. We notified ATC that we needed to return and set about getting the airplane down to a more acceptable landing weight as we headed back. I also notified our FA about the air return; the nature of the situation and informed him that I did not anticipate anything but a normal landing. I also made a PA to the passengers informing them that we had a mechanical issue that we had under control but as a precaution we were returning. I elected to lower the gear once I slowed below 250 knots to increase drag and my burn. I could see and sense the autopilot still struggling to keep the airplane from rolling so I uncoupled the autopilot and the airplane again wanted to roll left. I started adding right aileron trim and ended up finding that it took about 1/3 full scale deflection to the right to keep the right wing down. We flew a long final; configured early and ended up landing in an overweight landing around 46.300 pounds with as minimal a sink rate as possible. We stopped normally; taxied clear of the runway and returned to the gate normally. Threats were an aircraft that was not responding normally as I would expect it to; difficulty understanding my Flight Attendant at times; and Maintenance Control (MX) asking me more detailed questions about my issue when I was still dealing with it. I feel that as the captain and part of an excellent crew; we handled the situation as best as we could and performed well. On the company standpoint; I think we should limit responses to an aircraft in distress to just the dispatcher unless MX is specifically requested to help troubleshoot an ongoing problem not yet under control.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.