B737-900
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 128; Flight Crew Type 5236
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft
Immediately after takeoff on climbout; the flight control master caution illuminated. FLT CONTROL B Low Pressure light illuminated on overhead. I felt no adverse flight control effects while hand flying. We continued climb; performed the after takeoff checklist. Engaged autopilot A. We addressed the problem via the QRH. This involved switching to standby rudder on the flight control panel. Several other lights illuminated when we switched to standby; including feel differential pressure; and the yaw damp disengaged. We ran the QRH for those subsequent lights. We continued the flight normally. Due to the failure involving a flight control redundancy system loss; and discussing with dispatch via ACARS messages; we [requested priority handling] with ATC. Advised purser of [situation] with no special instructions required. Requested the longest runway [at the destination airport]. Landed uneventfully. Enroute several messages were sent and received from Dispatch; [Chief Pilot]; and Maintenance. ELB (Electronic Logbook) report sent. Post flight debrief accomplished with FO (First Officer).To expand on the above:First off; I added ACARS communication as a threat. It is definitely a hassle and time consuming to type out all communications with Dispatch. [Commercial Radio] is nearly as useless. It is my opinion that safety would have been greatly enhanced if we would have had phone communications in flight available to us. 20 years ago when I started with the airlines we had phones on board; but not now. It is my humble opinion that all aircraft should have satellite phones available to the pilots for phone use in flight. To make matters worse; the printer started acting up in flight and despite printing all messages from [Maintenance Control] and Dispatch; the printed messages were essentially unreadable and we had to find old messages stored in the 'messages received' prompt when we wanted to reference them in our decision making process. Again; time consuming and a hassle and a threat to our decision making processes.After the QRH was run to address the issue at hand; we discussed the option of [requested priority handling]. The FOM (Flight Operations Manual) guidance was helpful and we did in fact declare due to a redundant flight control system loss. We also spent a fair amount of time discussing a potential divert. After evaluation of all safety aspects with regard to the system loss; due to the system operating normally on the stand-by rudder system; we felt no margin of safety would be gained with a diversion; and thus continued the flight to completion at [the destination airport]. As an abundance of caution; we did request the longest runway for landing; which was uneventful. The flight was met by [airport] fire and rescue standing by; and they followed us to the gate.My thanks and appreciation to FO (First Officer) who was professional; communicated effectively; aided in flying duties and checklists; and was a big help in the decision making processes for the safe completion of the flight.A post flight call was made to Dispatch and patched through to the [Chief Pilot] where I gave a verbal recap of the flight.
B737 Captain reported the loss of 'B' hydraulic system after takeoff.