Dash 8-400
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem; Flight Crew Landed As Precaution; Flight Crew Diverted; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft; Procedure
While climbing out at approximately a little over 10;000 feet we received a pitch trim caution. I was hand flying the aircraft as we were maneuvering around some build-ups in order to avoid unnecessary turbulence; the caution light came on when I used the trim to command more nose up trim to properly trim the aircraft for the climb.The First Officer ran the Pitch Trim Caution E&A checklist. This would not clear the malfunction and the checklist confirmed that our pitch trim was jammed in position and we would have no AutoPilot for the remainder of the flight. The aircraft was trimmed for a climb at approximately 200 knots at a 5 degree nose up attitude. I contacted Dispatch and advised them of the situation and spoke with Maintenance (MX) control. When discussing what my intentions were; myself and Dispatch agreed that we would continue to ZZZ for the moment but I'd evaluate the situation a little closer to ZZZ1 once we were in cruise flight.Once we reached our cruising altitude of FL240 it became apparent that the amount of nose down force that needed to be maintained on the control column was substantial. Furthermore in order to minimize the amount of nose down forces required on the yoke to hold altitude and to comply with the E&A checklist the airspeed had to be maintained at just over 200 knots IAS; greatly increasing our time enroute to ZZZ. The First Officer and I had a discussion as to the wisdom of continuing the flight all the way to ZZZ under these conditions and determined that the more prudent course of action was to divert to ZZZ1. I also believed that the pace of ATC operations into ZZZ1 were much more favorable for an abnormal landing than in the busy airspace of ZZZ. I called Dispatch and the Dispatcher agreed with my decision and we diverted to ZZZ1. We followed the E&A procedure for this landing and landed without incident in ZZZ1 and taxied to the gate. After landing in ZZZ1 and speaking with the MX personnel waiting for us I debriefed the crew with the exception of 1 FA that had already left the aircraft before I could get to the back (approx. 5 minutes or so after deplaning ended) in order to make her DH back to ZZZ1. I also spoke with [NAME] and we debriefed the flight.This was a situation that I hadn't seen pop up before as either a FO or a CA on the Dash 8-400 and I might be mistaken but I'm not sure I've seen this particular situation in the SIM either. Although the situation was certainly manageable it might be a good scenario to incorporate into future SIM sessions just so pilots can get an idea of what the aircraft feels like when the pitch trim is inoperative.
Dash 8-400 Captain reported jammed pitch trim system severe enough to cause a diversion.