NTSB Preliminary Report PA-31 Loss of Control on Takeoff Albany NY

I retired from professional flying after 47 years and my Before Takeoff habit never changed. All items were read and accomplished yet when cleared for takeoff I did a swift look around the cockpit and visually looked at the items that could kill me/us. I moved the controls for free and correct movement, flaps set and visually confirmed with the indicator, trim set and visually checked against the indicator, no lights (red or orange), seat locked . Sure, these same items are in the Pre-taxi, Taxi, Before Takeoff checklist but late night, fatigue, complacency, circadian rhythm out of phase have downed pilots better than me.

AFAIK, Natalie was not a social media "influencer", nor did she have any YouTube channel. If anything, her social media presence was limited to her landscape photography. Not flying. She was a very energetic, strong, quiet and hard working woman who lived in reality, not virtually. She was respected as an arctic and wilderness guide, a bush pilot and flew for Kenn Borek Air. Google her and tell me you are not impressed with her accomplishments. And the love and respect her co-workers, clients and friends had for her. Runaway trim, or skipping the checklist for trim on takeoff are both possibilities. I've had the electric trim runaway on take off in a Twin Comanche. Almost killed me. Disclosure: I didn't know her but did take the time to Google her. What an impressive person. And a tragedy.

Breaks my heart. So sad. I had a trim do that in a C182 2 miles off coast over Atlantic Ocean at night off Palm Beach. The trim got stuck in the nose up attitude due to AP error. I had to muscle the plane level and then pull the fuse and then yank on the manual trim. The panic was real. The muscle needed to correct it in a 182 was intense. Can’t imagine a twin of that size. Thank you for your reports. They are so valuable.

Juan, once as a student pilot (with my instructor ) I set the trim for take off, but as soon as we lifted off we pitched up significantly more than expected and it took tremendous forward pressure to maintain proper pitch. I indicated to my instructor that something was wrong, he then set the trim based on how it felt at that point, right as we were climbing out, which then indicated significant nose down trim. After landing and close examination, we discovered that the indicator was just completely wrong/broken. I learned from that point to check the trim tab position vs what the indicator is showing as part of preflight.

Many moons ago I was flying a Piper Seneca ll and on a take-off just after lift off I used the electric trim switch on the column to trim nose up slightly as I became airborne. The electric switch on the control column stuck and continued to trim to near full nose up. As the nose pitched up the controller noticed I was in trouble and cleared me to land any runway. I was too busy to respond. Fortunately I was able to use a combination of the manual trim wheel and the electric switch to trim nose down and was able to recover before stalling the aircraft 500ft off the runway from a very steep climb. It required all my strength pushing the column forward at the time. Then it got worse. The electric trim switch I used again (stupid move) now stuck and continued trimming in the nose down position. Again all my strength to pull the nose up to a level position and this time with the other hand on the manual trim was able to recover and I took up the controllers suggestion and landed on a separate runway causing the go-around of a B-767 which was on final. On the Seneca the breaker switches were the type you cannot pull. The Navajo has breakers you can pull. My advice is know where the breaker is on the trim actuator. I'm thinking this accident may be a similar situation I encountered and I'm not sure if the accident investigators could tell if she had a runaway trim on take off. The accident site revealed the elevator screw trimmed back but not how it got there IMHO.

I met Natalie once a couple of weeks before the accident. I had toured her through the Western Canada Aviation Museum. She was an incredibly interesting individual who already had accomplished a great deal in her short life.

I own and operate a PA-31. I think it is unlikely the trim would be set so far back during the previous phase - landing. As part of the pre-flight walk around trim tab position is meant to be verified at neutral. I do eye ball the tab. Electric trim is checked twice pre-takeoff, first after both engines start(full operation tested) and then on pre-TO, Check SET for configuration. The indicators can be sticky and if in doubt a tap will normally unstick it, hence eye ball the tab.The electric trim is activated on mine 2 ways, manually via a toggle switch mounted on the pilot's yoke, and via the AP in an auto mode. The toggle switch is prone to failure and could possibly jam I guess. I think there may have been an AD long ago for a mod on that, certain to have been done if required. I haven't seen any switch on the co-pilot's yoke. The AP's operation, or at least mine, Altimatic IIIB, is unreliable. I only engage in the cruise and then ready to pull the breaker. Given the accident flight was an IFR flight and seemed stable immediately after take-off I wonder whether the AP was engaged (Bendix FCS 810?? has electric trim authority), commanded full up trim. It is a candidate for cause, at least should be considered. I just looked at my checklists and any mention of when to switch the AP on, it may be in the manual for the AP though. If she had 20 hours on type could have taken her by surprise. To anybody reading, if this happened to me at 200ft, I wouldn't pull the circuit breaker, I would just go for the master immediately, get the ac under control with manual wheel and then pull the breaker and re-enagge the master. Your window to recover is small and if you pulled the wrong CB imagine debating that at the Pearly Gates.

I spent alot of hours in the PA31s. My right knee ALWAYS was in contact with the trim wheel. ALWAYS. Had a Piper Aire autopilot that went uncommanded full nose up in cruise. I was able to alert the passengers before uncoupling. Also had a nose up trim runaway after rotation in a Chieftian coming out of Joliet, IL at gross weight. Pulled the breaker but it still took all my strength to keep it from stalling. My advice: positive contact with trim wheel and know where pitch trim breaker is without looking....in every aircraft with electric trim.

This nearly happened to me in a C172 during the long cross-country flight for my PPL more than 20 years ago. Landed (trim up) and thought I could do the pre-take off checklist from memory. Launched, pitched up suddenly but was able to muscle nose down before stall. Fixed trim and knew what an idiotic mistake I'd made. I've been very big about checklists ever since. Real lesson for me in that mistake. Be careful out there and watch those bad attitudes —— the mental ones. I feel so sorry for this poor pilot.

Years ago we had a PA31T that had up pitch on TO. The pilot got it under control with electric trim. The problem was the trim indicator had slipped showing TO when it obviously wasn’t. He was stout guy and said it took about all he had to keep it under control.

Im trying to remember but we had a procedure with the 135 Navajo's in Alaska where the pilots before flight would turn the elevator trim all the way in one direction, can't remember if it was up or down, then turn the trim wheel back something like a full 4 or 5 complete turns, then you knew for sure it was in the takeoff position, without relying on the elevator trim indicator which could be wrong.

I’ve got a couple thousand hours in the Chieftain flying freight and passengers. Highest regards for the aircraft. However I do not remember trimming during flare to minimize yoke force. Trimming during flap schedule sure. Our one airplane airline hired a new pilot who, on his FIRST FLIGHT topped the tanks, filled every seat plus baggage and attempted a takeoff out of Prescott. There was an elevator issue that was unknown whereby the elevator travel stop screw had backed out limiting forward yoke travel to something less than full travel. With the excessive load and aft cg the new hire did his usual 80 knot rotation and as soon as he selected gear up was flying an aircraft he could not control. The nose rose uncontrollably and evidently could not reverse the trend. Rather than put the gear back down and try and land, he opted to chop power and pancaked off the side of the runway around a power pole , fully 1,500 feet from the end of the runway. Injuries galore but no fatalities, even when the tanks ruptured. Airline folded. Desert Pacific Airlines gone. There were only 3 pilots, me, the chief pilot and the new hire. So my brief but glorious domicile in Sedona Arizona came to an end.

Also a good habit to note the location of your trim and AP breaker prior to takeoff. Its part of my run up checklist. Especially if you rent, it could be in a different spot than last time...

I looked her up. She was an amazing woman full of life and what happened to her terrible. Hate to see when people die young and have so much to left to give to the world.

No matter how experienced you are, no matter how many years you have been doing a thing, you are not above or beyond making a mistake.

I spent half my career in GA and are now nearing retirement from a large airline. As much fun as it all was ( compared to airline flying) I know my survival was as much due to good fortune as good management.

Same thing happened to me in a rental 172 back about 2002. I missed that on the checklist and it's common for the previous pilot to have trimmed almost all the way up in a 172. When I rotated, it seemed like the airplane shot literally straight up!! Although I'm sure it didn't, just seemed like it. The stall horn was screaming like an Irish banshee. I used all my might to push the nose down and I doubt if anyone ever rotated a trim wheel as fast as I did that day! Something helpful was the fact that this particular 172 had leading edge STOL mods done on the wings. Had it been without those, I might not be typing this right now.

I am currently in training for my PPL . This very thing happened to me. I normally train in Cessna Skyhawks with G1000 avionics. Most of them have manual trim. On the day of my second solo I was given a newer Skyhawk with electric trim, that has a toggle button on the yoke. I did my run up as normal, got take off clearance and proceeded to do my take off roll. All of a sudden my plane prematurely nosed up. Startled the heck out of me. This plane was forcefully pointing itself up and my airspeed was decaying rapidly. I applied all the force I could muster forcing the nose down. I had no idea what was happening initially until I was cleared to my first turn from upwind that I realized I was trimmed all the way up. I corrected the trim and that literally saved me . Scarry situation. I am sure its worse in a twin engine aircraft.

Just an observation...As you know, at the big airline, resetting the trim to neutral is also on the AFTER landing checklist.

I used to fly the PA-31-350 back in the 80's we used to manually roll full nose down trim to the stop, then count back the number of nose up trim wheel revolutions to achieve the proper take off elevator trim position. This was because the elevator trim indicator was considered completely unreliable. RIP fellow aviator