Cessna 177 pilot reported that the battery came loose and burned through the elevator cable.

Attributes
ACN	1584215
Time
Date	201810
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Cardinal 177/177RG
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	None
Component
Aircraft Component	Elevator ControlSystem
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 260 Flight Crew Total 1171 Flight Crew Type 375
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

Narrative:

As I was returning home from flying [aerial survey] I had no issues or weather to avoid. Once I was about 25 miles east of ZZZ I attempted to go around some thunderstorms and work my way into ZZZ. I experienced some turbulence and decided to turn back to ZZZ1. During this time I realized that I could not pitch the nose forward and my elevator seemed unresponsive to my control inputs. I ended up being able to pull the yoke back and pitch up but not able to do the opposite. I was able to control the aircraft using power settings and trim to divert to ZZZ1 and land safely. As maintenance is being done it has been discovered that the battery was not latched in place and thus fell onto the elevator control wire; burning it in half. The rudder control was close to also being burned through. I believe this could have been a much worse situation. I also believe the company I work for does not do adequate maintenance on their aircraft.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Cessna 177 pilot reported that the battery came loose and burned through the elevator cable.

Narrative: As I was returning home from flying [aerial survey] I had no issues or weather to avoid. Once I was about 25 miles East of ZZZ I attempted to go around some thunderstorms and work my way into ZZZ. I experienced some turbulence and decided to turn back to ZZZ1. During this time I realized that I could not pitch the nose forward and my elevator seemed unresponsive to my control inputs. I ended up being able to pull the yoke back and pitch up but not able to do the opposite. I was able to control the aircraft using power settings and trim to divert to ZZZ1 and land safely. As maintenance is being done it has been discovered that the battery was not latched in place and thus fell onto the elevator control wire; burning it in half. The rudder control was close to also being burned through. I believe this could have been a much worse situation. I also believe the company I work for does not do adequate maintenance on their aircraft.

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.