Erj captain reported that a pitch trim failure during climb resulted in a return to the departure ai...

Narrative:

Climbing through approximately 4;000 ft. After takeoff from runway xxl in ZZZ; we got a ptrim main inoperative warning message. I called out the warning and asked the pilot flying how the trim felt. We verified both main pitch trims did not work and then used the backup pitch trim to alleviate the pitch forces on the yoke. As soon as I verified the pilot flying was good flying the aircraft; I started to run the QRH. ZZZ departure gave us a further climb to which I responded that we were needing to work out an issue and asked to level off and get a vector as we were most likely going to return to ZZZ. They had us level off and then shortly after descend back to 8;000 ft. And told us to continue on our present heading. Following the QRH we never engaged the autopilot and hand flew the aircraft using the backup pitch trim. After contacting dispatch we decided to return to ZZZ but needed to burn excess fuel down to below our max landing weight as we were approximately 2;000 lbs. Over. Coordinated with dispatch and ATC to burn the fuel and then came in to land in ZZZ uneventfully and taxied to the gate.ptrim main inoperative warning message. After warning message popped up; pilot flying said trim seemed slow to respond right before failure.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ERJ Captain reported that a pitch trim failure during climb resulted in a return to the departure airport.

Narrative: Climbing through approximately 4;000 ft. after takeoff from Runway XXL in ZZZ; we got a PTRIM MAIN INOP warning message. I called out the warning and asked the Pilot Flying how the trim felt. We verified both main pitch trims did not work and then used the backup pitch trim to alleviate the pitch forces on the yoke. As soon as I verified the Pilot Flying was good flying the aircraft; I started to run the QRH. ZZZ departure gave us a further climb to which I responded that we were needing to work out an issue and asked to level off and get a vector as we were most likely going to return to ZZZ. They had us level off and then shortly after descend back to 8;000 ft. and told us to continue on our present heading. Following the QRH we never engaged the autopilot and hand flew the aircraft using the backup pitch trim. After contacting Dispatch we decided to return to ZZZ but needed to burn excess fuel down to below our max landing weight as we were approximately 2;000 lbs. over. Coordinated with Dispatch and ATC to burn the fuel and then came in to land in ZZZ uneventfully and taxied to the gate.PTRIM MAIN INOP warning message. After warning message popped up; Pilot Flying said trim seemed slow to respond right before failure.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1700170
Time
Date	201911
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	EMB ERJ 145 ER/LR
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Elevator Trim System
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Erj captain reported that a pitch trim failure during climb resulted in a return to the departure airport.