Flight Crew Flight Engineer; Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 32; Flight Crew Total 12650; Flight Crew Type 100
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem; General Declared Emergency
Aircraft
After rotation and on initial climb; the aircraft continued to pitch up; the elevator trim was moved to down trim and the cables became loose and tangled. I leveled off at 5;000 FT MSL which is approximately 500 FT AGL; with full forward elevator pressure and declared an emergency on 122.90 'Unicom'. I announced to an aircraft holding short of runway I would be landing [on that] runway and that there were 3 souls on board. The landing was uneventful and I taxied back to the tie down spot and wrote a maintenance discrepancy in the rental log and spoke with the manager of the flight school that the aircraft need maintenance.
PA34 pilot reported the aircraft was difficult to control in pitch shortly after takeoff because the trim cables were loose and tangled.