EHM Plane carrying 15 passengers crashes soon after take-off

[EHM-1383 Syed]

I was doing the Flight 1000 which is EGLL - EGHD. I was using the Beechcraft 1900D for the first time and I successfully took off from EGLL and was going for 9000. After going to 2500 I just turned the Autopilot (w/ ALT) on which would take me to 9000 ft. But, something unexpected began to happen. The plane just got it's nose up, and it was completely vertical in the air! It stalled and started turning here and there but I immediately turned the autopilot off and gained control of the plane. I was trying to figure out what went wrong and I thought it was something weird and I just turned the autopilot on once more, and the same thing happend. I thought it is a problem with the Beechcraft 1900D or maybe it's just me doing something wrong because I was flying it for the first time. I just changed the plane to Dornier 228-100. I have flown this plane a lot of times before and I know everything about it, so I just relaxed and turned Autopilot on again to reach 9000, this time heading (HDG) also on. And this time it was terrible! The plane first got vertical in the air and started to bank towards left, now there was a 90 degree left bank and the plane was vertical and stalling, I turned the autopilot off again and this time I couldn't control it. The plane just turned and twisted left-right-left-right, went up and went down and stalled for a while then it went face-first to the ground and crashed.

I am very confused and I just don't know what went wrong. The autopilot? The Plane? Or something else? :s

[EHM-0001 Gergely]

Hi Sameer,

bad news inded... :{

I'm sure it had to do with elevator trim setting (it was set to the extremum - this usually occurs when you don't turn off the autopilot when you're on ground). Try setting it to about 70% before departing.

[EHM-0641 Rico]

Does that mean that the AP will basiclly still try to 'lift' the airplane to a higher altitude while it's on the grounD?

[EHM-0001 Gergely]

Yes, if you enable 'altitude hold' on the ground. As AP uses elevator trim to modify the altitude, it will set the trim to the extreme value, as it doesn't know why the plane isn't gaining altitude. If you fly manually, you usually don't notice it as you tend to counter-balance it, but once you release the joystrick or turn the autopilot on, the plane will get a high nose-up pitch, then stall.

[EHM-1383 Syed]

Ah that was the problem. Oh now I'll never, ever, turn the autopilot on when I'm on the ground next time. :\

[EHM-0933 Richard]

good!

Cheers
Rich

[EHM-0962 Zhen Yi]

Ah yes i've experienced that with a jet before too........that's why i never turn on the autopilot until i'm about 10 000 feets off the ground