Light Sport Aircraft
Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 18; Flight Crew Total 860; Flight Crew Type 40
Situational Awareness; Training / Qualification; Troubleshooting
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach
Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem
Weather; Human Factors
Arriving at my destination in light to moderate turbulence; I noticed that my elevator trim was not actuating. I reset the circuit breaker; but this did not resolve the issue. Since the trim was in a nose down condition I needed to exert significant additional back pressure to control the descent and landing properly. I decided to alert the Tower Controller that I was requesting a precautionary standby landing due to this condition. I checked all of the systems I could think of; but could not resolve the condition of heavy nose down trim. I made my approach and bounced slightly at touchdown due to the wind and heavy control pressure so I decided to go around to enter a slightly longer pattern for a more stabilized approach. On my second approach I landed without any incident and returned to my hangar. On further investigation I discovered that I had inadvertently switched off the trim forward priority switch leaving me with no electric trim. The aircraft does not have a manual trim control. This mistake was due to my having hung my headset volume control/battery pack too near to the trim priority switch such that when I experienced some turbulence and I reached up to adjust my headset volume control and when I released it; it swung back and flipped off the trim switch. I knew the switch was there but simply forgot it while checking else where for the problem. Since the aircraft is brand new with approximately 20 hours total time since leaving the factory; this problem will not be likely to occur again because it will be a firm part of my future landing checklist items. The airplane has excellent characteristics even without trim control and the pilot will continue to improve his skills.
A Carbon Cub SS pilot had difficulty controlling the aircraft because of the nose down trim condition and determined after landing that he had inadvertently turned the Trim Priority Switch OFF when he hung a headset near it.