Skylane 182/RG Turbo Skylane/RG
Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 5; Flight Crew Total 1369; Flight Crew Type 499
Confusion; Distraction; Troubleshooting; Communication Breakdown
ATC Issue All Types; Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition
Aircraft
I was flying with an instructor for recurrency check and earn WINGS credits. We departed ZZZ; flew instrument approaches and conducted landings at two other nearby airports; and conducted maneuvers in a practice area. Flaps were deployed and retracted several times during this portion of the flight. We were returning to ZZZ to perform several landings.We were assigned Runway XX and I set-up for a short-field landing with 30 degrees of flaps. A few feet above the ground; the instructor called for a go-around. I applied full power; set the flaps control to 20 degrees; and pitched up to climb. After establishing a positive rate of climb; I retracted the landing gear and raised the flaps control to 10 degrees and then zero degrees.We heard a loud bang from the left side of the aircraft. I looked left and saw that the left flap was still down. I looked right and saw that the right flap was fully retracted. I continued to fly the airplane and explicitly [advised ATC] on the Tower frequency and also said we had asymmetrical flaps. I continued to fly a right pattern. I considered; but rejected; the idea of attempting to lower the right flap since the plane was controllable and there was no telling what trying to reconfigure the flaps might do to controllability or to structural integrity.As we began to level-off and increase airspeed; I noticed much more left aileron was required to prevent the airplane from rolling right. In the meantime; the Tower Controller cleared us to land on Runway XX; number two behind another aircraft. My instructor told me to fly a wide pattern so that I could make shallow-banked turns to return for landing. He also suggested using rudder to help relieve aileron pressure even if that meant being slightly uncoordinated. I maintained higher than normal airspeed on short final and bled-off the excess airspeed in ground effect before touching down on the long runway. The adverse control pressure lessened as airspeed was reduced.I was surprised not to see any emergency vehicles. As we were rolling-out; the Tower Controller asked if we needed assistance. I said we no longer needed help now that we were on the ground. We proceeded to taxi normally to parking.Preliminary inspection of the aircraft indicated that a left flap roller got caught slightly off-track during retraction and jammed. The source of the loud bang was likely the motor continuing to operate and a cable snapping. The flap still appeared to be in the full down position so it's likely the incremental retractions from 20 to 10 degrees and 10 to zero degrees overstressed the cable with the flap unable to retract from 30 degrees.Personnel from Airport Operations stopped by to check on us and to apologize for the lack of response. They did not receive direct notice from the control tower. Similarly; someone from the Airport Fire Department later telephoned me to apologize for not responding explaining that they also had not been informed until after it was over.Some lessons learned: 1) Just like a pilot should visually confirm (if possible) the landing gear status has changed when actuating the gear switch; a pilot should also visually confirm (if possible) the flaps have moved when actuating the flap switch. That might have prevented me from continuing to attempt to incrementally raise the flaps and over stress the cable.2) Mechanics should ensure during inspections that the flap motor will stop before the cable breaks.3) Controllers must take it seriously when a pilot [advised the situation].4) I shouldn't have mentioned asymmetrical flaps without also mentioning possible controllability failure since that may have confused the controller.5) I should have asked to land number one instead of settling for number two to ensure that the runway would be clear of preceding traffic in case the previous airplane came to a stop on the runway.6) Perhaps I should have asked for runway XY since it is wider than XX and would've lessened the probability of running off the side of the runway if I needed to use excessive rudder pressure or excessive airspeed to land the aircraft.7) Two qualified pilots with an understanding of CRM certainly lessens the workload as I was able to concentrate on controlling the aircraft while the instructor was able to focus on situational awareness.
C182 pilot reported a flap asymmetry problem when a flap cable failed during go-around.