Let's not have a mud slinging contest gentlemen.
Being a bit of a gear head, I've always wondered whether I would have been able to figure out the likely cause for the jamming trim while inflight.
The proper recovery action for that Air Alaska aircraft, before the nut let go completely, was probably to do a no flap approach into some place with a very long runway-something like Edwards AFB-and to trim the aircraft by moving passengers as necessary. Let the airline figure out how to get it out of there afterwards.
I learned my lesson about malfunctioning flight controls a long while ago. Don't even bother going flying with them if they are not fully functional. They are either completely right, or they are not right at all for flight.
Sea story:
I was assigned a combat air patrol in my F-4 and the pilot who had just flown it told me that there was a little "catch" in the stick in the last bit of nose up stabilator travel and to check it out.
When I did my control checks, by golly, he was right! The last inch of stick travel had an abnormal feel to it, but it moved the full travel. Being gung-ho, I went flying off the ship and returned after an uneventful flight. I downed the aircraft because the stick was supposed to be free for the whole travel. Maintenance needed an aircraft badly for the next launch, so they Upped the aircraft and gave it to the next pilot who also downed it when he felt the slight bind, this time before flying it.
What they found when they investigated the problem made me realize how lucky we had been. An electrical control box for the ARI was mounted on a platform just aft of the stabilizer control rod. The bolts attaching the box to the platform had all fallen out and the box was dangling from its wire bundle on the edge of the platform and contacting the linkage which pushed it out of the way with aft stick causing the "catch". If the box had gone over the edge of the platform, it would have limited how much aft stick was available. Not good when you have to slow down to land aboard an aircraft carrier.
As soon as you are aware of a flight control malfunction that FCOM does not properly address, that is the time to become very defensive and very conservative in your approach. Get it on the ground as safely as possible and let the geniuses figure it out.
