Narrative:

I arrived at the airport and after clearing customs and immigration; I attempted to pull up a flight plan and received a message that the flight had been locked out and I was requested to call dispatch. I called dispatcher who informed me that aircraft was around 7000 pounds overweight for takeoff due to a very large fuel load of 40;000 pounds. In addition; he informed me that both autopilots were placarded inoperative. I'm not sure what the game plan was at that time because the fuel problem alone had to be resolved. I informed the dispatcher that I could not accept the aircraft due to both autopilots being inoperative and the length of the flight. I proceed to the aircraft to look at the logbook and discovered the write up that caused the autopilot's to be placarded was due to the stabilizer trim light illuminated in flight. This was the fourth time the stab trim had been written up. This further supported my decision not to accept the aircraft. And yes it actually had 40;000 pounds of fuel loaded. Aircraft arrived at this station the evening before and was an overnight. We swapped aircraft and departed late. Aircraft was repaired later that day we discovered later. Why didn't someone address this situation sooner instead of attempting to dispatch this aircraft in this condition with this history? After the third stab trim write up the aircraft should have been repaired. In my opinion it was unconscionable to continue to operate aircraft with this mechanical deficiency and attempt to operate it for that length of flight time.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737-800 crew refused an aircraft during preflight because the stabilizer trim was MEL'ed after the fourth maintenance logbook entry causing both autopilots to be deferred for the lengthy flight.

Narrative: I arrived at the airport and after clearing customs and immigration; I attempted to pull up a flight plan and received a message that the flight had been locked out and I was requested to call Dispatch. I called Dispatcher who informed me that aircraft was around 7000 LBS overweight for takeoff due to a very large fuel load of 40;000 LBS. In addition; he informed me that both autopilots were placarded inoperative. I'm not sure what the game plan was at that time because the fuel problem alone had to be resolved. I informed the Dispatcher that I could not accept the aircraft due to both autopilots being inoperative and the length of the flight. I proceed to the aircraft to look at the logbook and discovered the write up that caused the autopilot's to be placarded was due to the STAB TRIM light illuminated in flight. This was the fourth time the stab trim had been written up. This further supported my decision not to accept the aircraft. And yes it actually had 40;000 LBS of fuel loaded. Aircraft arrived at this station the evening before and was an overnight. We swapped aircraft and departed late. Aircraft was repaired later that day we discovered later. Why didn't someone address this situation sooner instead of attempting to dispatch this aircraft in this condition with this history? After the third stab trim write up the aircraft should have been repaired. In my opinion it was unconscionable to continue to operate aircraft with this mechanical deficiency and attempt to operate it for that length of flight time.

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.