Narrative:

I was doing a rigging check for aircraft X. My pre-flight was thorough to make sure the aircraft was safe to fly. I did the run up and control check and everything appeared to be normal. At this point I made the decision to fly and contacted ATC for a VFR clearance to the northwest at 4;500 ft. The taxi; takeoff and climb and initial cruise were all normal with no abnormal indications. Once I was clear of the bravo airspace at 4;500 ft. I then proceeded to do a set of steep turns to verify the rigging of the aircraft. As I was rolling wings level from the left steep turn I noticed the aileron controls seemed to be jammed. I initially used rudder to stop the turn and then began to go through all the controls. At this point I realized that the entire control stick was jammed. I then began troubleshooting and started with the emergency checklist to see what it said and then I pulled up the poh on my ipad to see what the poh said. There was nothing listed so I then began trying to control the airplane and see what I could do. I had rudder to control turns and throttle to control pitch. I then tried flap settings to see how the aircraft would respond at this point I realized flaps 50 was about the most that I wanted to have a good pitch attitude and maintain control. I notified ATC and declared and emergency and explained what was going on. ATC gave me vectors for the ILS xxl and I was able to join the localizer using the rudder to guide the aircraft. I contacted dispatch to talk with a mechanic to see if they had any ideas as to what I should do that could possibly clear the jam in the control stick. At this point I knew I was going to have to land the aircraft with the configuration I had. I proceeded towards the airport on the ILS xxl and eventually saw the airport. At no time did I enter clouds during the flight. ATC gave me the ILS just in case. Once I was across zzzzz inbound to ZZZ; ATC handed me off to tower. Upon contacting tower; they alerted me that the winds were 160 at 8 kts. And offered me clearance to land [runway] xy. I accepted the clearance then began a turn towards [the] lake to set up for a wide base to xy. At this point I was using power to descend and flaps at 50% to descend as stable as possible. I turned final and felt the approach was almost as stable as a normal approach and continued to the runway. On the final I used power and rudder to adjust the aircraft and make it as straight and as stable as possible. I touched down relatively flat and firm and this jarred the controls loose. The remainder of the rollout and taxi was normal.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An SR-20 pilot reported jammed flight controls but was able to safely land with control of rudder; thrust and flaps.

Narrative: I was doing a rigging check for Aircraft X. My pre-flight was thorough to make sure the aircraft was safe to fly. I did the run up and control check and everything appeared to be normal. At this point I made the decision to fly and contacted ATC for a VFR clearance to the northwest at 4;500 ft. The taxi; takeoff and climb and initial cruise were all normal with no abnormal indications. Once I was clear of the Bravo airspace at 4;500 ft. I then proceeded to do a set of steep turns to verify the rigging of the aircraft. As I was rolling wings level from the left steep turn I noticed the aileron controls seemed to be jammed. I initially used rudder to stop the turn and then began to go through all the controls. At this point I realized that the entire control stick was jammed. I then began troubleshooting and started with the emergency checklist to see what it said and then I pulled up the POH on my IPAD to see what the POH said. There was nothing listed so I then began trying to control the airplane and see what I could do. I had rudder to control turns and throttle to control pitch. I then tried flap settings to see how the aircraft would respond at this point I realized flaps 50 was about the most that I wanted to have a good pitch attitude and maintain control. I notified ATC and declared and emergency and explained what was going on. ATC gave me vectors for the ILS XXL and I was able to join the localizer using the rudder to guide the aircraft. I contacted Dispatch to talk with a mechanic to see if they had any ideas as to what I should do that could possibly clear the jam in the control stick. At this point I knew I was going to have to land the aircraft with the configuration I had. I proceeded towards the airport on the ILS XXL and eventually saw the airport. At no time did I enter clouds during the flight. ATC gave me the ILS just in case. Once I was across ZZZZZ inbound to ZZZ; ATC handed me off to Tower. Upon contacting Tower; they alerted me that the winds were 160 at 8 kts. and offered me clearance to land [Runway] XY. I accepted the clearance then began a turn towards [the] lake to set up for a wide base to XY. At this point I was using power to descend and flaps at 50% to descend as stable as possible. I turned final and felt the approach was almost as stable as a normal approach and continued to the runway. On the final I used power and rudder to adjust the aircraft and make it as straight and as stable as possible. I touched down relatively flat and firm and this jarred the controls loose. The remainder of the rollout and taxi was normal.

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.