B737 Next Generation Undifferentiated
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 145; Flight Crew Type 7740
Confusion; Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control
Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem
Aircraft
During initial climb out both the auto trim and electric trim switch worked ok. Approximately 2000 feet into the climb the electric up trip stopped working momentarily. Was intermittent a few times then stopped working completely. Electric nose down trim worked ok. Was the same on FO (First Officer) yoke as well. Noticed the auto trim not working also. Placed autopilot on momentarily to see if auto trim would work while AP (Autopilot) engaged. It would not trim with different thrust settings or during an intermediate level off. Deselected autopilot and needed to manually trim nose up. Followed the QRH ELECTRIC STABILIZER TRIM INOPERATIVE procedure. No autopilot for duration of flight. Was able to manually trim both directions and continued flight per QRH. Called Dispatch and Maintenance to make sure there was nothing else we could do. Asked Dispatch to give a heads up to [our destination] that we'll request Runway XXL for the flaps 15 landing. Briefed a flaps 15 landing per the QRH. Advised Approach Control that we would like slightly longer final approach to configure early per QRH. They asked if we needed to declare an emergency. Told them not necessary as everything works ok; just can't use the autopilot and need to configure earlier than normal due to loss of electric trim. Everything went well and almost didn't need to configure early. The main reason for writing this is after having a discussion with several other pilots as to whether they would've handled this differently; all but one thought that this might fall under a loss of flight control and declaring an emergency may have been prudent as we are doing a nonstandard flaps 15 landing. Perhaps this is a gray area and I look forward to further feedback.
B737 Captain reported a horizontal stabilizer electric trim failure on climbout.