Narrative:

10-15 minutes outside of our destination we received a caution message for stab trim and mach trim. The non-flying pilot ran the appropriate QRH. We were not able to re-engage the stab trims; and determined we needed to land flaps 20. Due to the rather short runway and the gusty direct crosswinds (about 20 knots); and the nose pitched down from the stab trim I decided that we should just divert for the longer runway. Due to our ACARS being MEL'd we tried to contact the company via commercial radio relay to let them know we were diverting. We contacted our flight attendant and notified her of the situational and the diversion. We also contacted our new destination operations to let them know we were coming. We set up for the ILS to runway xx; and landed uneventfully. The QRH was followed and then the diversion occurred after we weighed our options for the safest landing location under the circumstance. Not having ACARS made the situations a little more difficult. Having the first officer contact the company through commercial radio below FL180 proved to be challenging. Perhaps just calling our original destination operations to have them pass the information to dispatch would have sufficed. Also we had to get the ATIS manually and due to my full flying workload (negative trim and auto-pilot) my first officer's job was really busy.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A CRJ-200's stabilizer and mach trim failed in flight. The flight diverted to a nearby airport with a longer runway because of cross winds and control pressures with an out of trim aircraft.

Narrative: 10-15 minutes outside of our destination we received a caution message for stab trim and mach trim. The non-flying pilot ran the appropriate QRH. We were not able to re-engage the stab trims; and determined we needed to land flaps 20. Due to the rather short runway and the gusty direct crosswinds (about 20 knots); and the nose pitched down from the stab trim I decided that we should just divert for the longer runway. Due to our ACARS being MEL'd we tried to contact the company via commercial radio relay to let them know we were diverting. We contacted our Flight Attendant and notified her of the situational and the diversion. We also contacted our new destination operations to let them know we were coming. We set up for the ILS to Runway XX; and landed uneventfully. The QRH was followed and then the diversion occurred after we weighed our options for the safest landing location under the circumstance. Not having ACARS made the situations a little more difficult. Having the First Officer contact the company through commercial radio below FL180 proved to be challenging. Perhaps just calling our original destination operations to have them pass the information to Dispatch would have sufficed. Also we had to get the ATIS manually and due to my full flying workload (negative trim and auto-pilot) my First Officer's job was really busy.

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.