istrumit
Well Known Member
Last Thursday, Thanksgiving, I was cruising at 6500 feet in my RV-10 with the A/P on and everything dialed in. Headed west, VFR on top with better air confirmed ahead.
I asked my 14 year old son, sitting in the copilot seat, to hand me something from the pocket, which he does.
About 4 seconds later, the airplane pitches up so quickly that we squish into our seats and enter a very high angle climb (>45 deg maybe).
We went from 160kt to 90kt (gained a lot of altitude...not sure how much) by the time I pushed the nose over and turned off everything that I thought could be related.
Then, I saw it.
He has the large iPad (the 12 inch) and it had been laying on the pitch trim since he had reached into the pocket for me.
Eventually the A/P reached its torque limit and disengaged, sending us into a sudden extreme pitch up.
I was holding the stick nose down against the trim while crushing the trim button back to neutral.
All of this takes place in about 15 seconds.
No one barfed...that's the good part. Besides my 12 year old daughter in the back seat thinking it was awesome.
I asked my 14 year old son, sitting in the copilot seat, to hand me something from the pocket, which he does.
About 4 seconds later, the airplane pitches up so quickly that we squish into our seats and enter a very high angle climb (>45 deg maybe).
We went from 160kt to 90kt (gained a lot of altitude...not sure how much) by the time I pushed the nose over and turned off everything that I thought could be related.
Then, I saw it.
He has the large iPad (the 12 inch) and it had been laying on the pitch trim since he had reached into the pocket for me.
Eventually the A/P reached its torque limit and disengaged, sending us into a sudden extreme pitch up.
I was holding the stick nose down against the trim while crushing the trim button back to neutral.
All of this takes place in about 15 seconds.
No one barfed...that's the good part. Besides my 12 year old daughter in the back seat thinking it was awesome.