Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Confusion; Troubleshooting
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem; Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport
Aircraft; Procedure
I was doing a rigging check for Aircraft X. My pre-flight was thorough to make sure the aircraft was safe to fly. I did the run up and control check and everything appeared to be normal. At this point I made the decision to fly and contacted ATC for a VFR clearance to the northwest at 4;500 ft. The taxi; takeoff and climb and initial cruise were all normal with no abnormal indications. Once I was clear of the Bravo airspace at 4;500 ft. I then proceeded to do a set of steep turns to verify the rigging of the aircraft. As I was rolling wings level from the left steep turn I noticed the aileron controls seemed to be jammed. I initially used rudder to stop the turn and then began to go through all the controls. At this point I realized that the entire control stick was jammed. I then began troubleshooting and started with the emergency checklist to see what it said and then I pulled up the POH on my IPAD to see what the POH said. There was nothing listed so I then began trying to control the airplane and see what I could do. I had rudder to control turns and throttle to control pitch. I then tried flap settings to see how the aircraft would respond at this point I realized flaps 50 was about the most that I wanted to have a good pitch attitude and maintain control. I notified ATC and declared and emergency and explained what was going on. ATC gave me vectors for the ILS XXL and I was able to join the localizer using the rudder to guide the aircraft. I contacted Dispatch to talk with a mechanic to see if they had any ideas as to what I should do that could possibly clear the jam in the control stick. At this point I knew I was going to have to land the aircraft with the configuration I had. I proceeded towards the airport on the ILS XXL and eventually saw the airport. At no time did I enter clouds during the flight. ATC gave me the ILS just in case. Once I was across ZZZZZ inbound to ZZZ; ATC handed me off to Tower. Upon contacting Tower; they alerted me that the winds were 160 at 8 kts. and offered me clearance to land [Runway] XY. I accepted the clearance then began a turn towards [the] lake to set up for a wide base to XY. At this point I was using power to descend and flaps at 50% to descend as stable as possible. I turned final and felt the approach was almost as stable as a normal approach and continued to the runway. On the final I used power and rudder to adjust the aircraft and make it as straight and as stable as possible. I touched down relatively flat and firm and this jarred the controls loose. The remainder of the rollout and taxi was normal.
An SR-20 pilot reported jammed flight controls but was able to safely land with control of rudder; thrust and flaps.