Narrative:

During the initial climb after gear and flap retraction; I was hand-flying the airplane and suddenly lost the ability to trim using the electric trim. I tried to trim with the trim wheel and it spun freely with no effect on yoke control pressure. The pilot not flying advised ATC that we would need to return to as a precaution and did not declare and emergency. I initially reduced speed to keep the aircraft closer to the airport; but the control pressures became excessive. To avoid descending; I increased the speed to around 200 KTS to relieve some of the control force required. We accomplished the appropriate abnormal procedures checklists and elected to land with zero flaps. In this aircraft; there is a pitch trim interconnect which operates during flap extension and retraction and we wanted to avoid any actions that might cause additional problems. The aircraft was flying normally except that I was required to hold an estimated 20 to 30 pounds of elevator back pressure to maintain level flight. We decided to not change the aircraft configuration and land with flaps fully retracted. We made a VFR return and landed without incident. There was no damage or injury in this event and we were able to taxi back to the FBO without any assistance. This event highlighted the value of my simulator-based training and is a success story of good CRM in an abnormal situation.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CE560 Captain experiences the failure of the electric pitch trim shortly after takeoff. The manual trim wheel rotates freely with no effect on pitch trim. Reporter elects to return to departure airport and land with no flaps.

Narrative: During the initial climb after gear and flap retraction; I was hand-flying the airplane and suddenly lost the ability to trim using the electric trim. I tried to trim with the trim wheel and it spun freely with no effect on yoke control pressure. The pilot not flying advised ATC that we would need to return to as a precaution and did not declare and emergency. I initially reduced speed to keep the aircraft closer to the airport; but the control pressures became excessive. To avoid descending; I increased the speed to around 200 KTS to relieve some of the control force required. We accomplished the appropriate abnormal procedures checklists and elected to land with zero flaps. In this aircraft; there is a pitch trim interconnect which operates during flap extension and retraction and we wanted to avoid any actions that might cause additional problems. The aircraft was flying normally except that I was required to hold an estimated 20 to 30 pounds of elevator back pressure to maintain level flight. We decided to not change the aircraft configuration and land with flaps fully retracted. We made a VFR return and landed without incident. There was no damage or injury in this event and we were able to taxi back to the FBO without any assistance. This event highlighted the value of my simulator-based training and is a success story of good CRM in an abnormal situation.

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.