Narrative:

After departure (gear/flaps up); I noticed that the airplane would not trim nose-up with electric trim. Captain's trim wheel gave the same result. Nose down trim worked fine. We made the decision to level at 9;000 ft and return. Captain consulted the quick reference handbook; and decided to reference the stabilizer trim inoperative checklist; although it did not exactly match our condition. (During my initial transition training on the B737; I was taught that 'stabilizer trim inoperative' was the equivalent of 'jammed stabilizer.') we elected not to use the stabilizer trim cutout switches; since part of the system was working; and would be useful in the event of a go around. We declared an emergency and were vectored for an ILS. The captain decided he wanted to fly the approach; so I transferred control to him; set up for the approach and did the approach brief. We originally set up for a flaps 15 degree landing. Descending through about 3;300 ft; the captain noticed that he once again had full use of electric trim. He elected at that point to perform a normal flaps 30 degree landing; so we re-bugged; and landed at flaps 30 degrees without further problems. As mentioned before; I was trained to use the stabilizer trim inoperative checklist for a jammed stabilizer. The condition statement 'the stabilizer fails to respond to electric trim inputs' is somewhat ambiguous. Does that mean 'will not respond to any input;' or 'will not respond to some inputs'? Perhaps the condition statement could be changed to include or differentiate between partial or complete failures.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737 STAB trim would only trim nose down after takeoff. The STAB Trim Inoperative checklist did not appear to apply. The crew flew with manual trim; declared an emergency and returned to land. Full trim became available on final when configured for landing.

Narrative: After departure (gear/flaps up); I noticed that the airplane would not trim nose-up with electric trim. Captain's trim wheel gave the same result. Nose down trim worked fine. We made the decision to level at 9;000 FT and return. Captain consulted the Quick Reference Handbook; and decided to reference the STAB Trim Inoperative checklist; although it did not exactly match our condition. (During my initial transition training on the B737; I was taught that 'STAB Trim Inoperative' was the equivalent of 'Jammed STAB.') We elected not to use the STAB trim cutout switches; since part of the system was working; and would be useful in the event of a go around. We declared an emergency and were vectored for an ILS. The Captain decided he wanted to fly the approach; so I transferred control to him; set up for the approach and did the approach brief. We originally set up for a flaps 15 degree landing. Descending through about 3;300 FT; the Captain noticed that he once again had full use of electric trim. He elected at that point to perform a normal flaps 30 degree landing; so we re-bugged; and landed at flaps 30 degrees without further problems. As mentioned before; I was trained to use the STAB Trim Inoperative checklist for a jammed STAB. The condition statement 'The STAB fails to respond to electric trim inputs' is somewhat ambiguous. Does that mean 'will not respond to any input;' or 'will not respond to some inputs'? Perhaps the condition statement could be changed to include or differentiate between partial or complete failures.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.