Incident at La Ronge, Saskatchewan

1996-05-14: C-FPGE, a DHC6 was returning to La Ronge with a crew of two when the pilot noted that the elevator control system was stiffer than normal. The crew coordinated their activities with company maintenance personnel and landed safely at La Ronge approximately ten minutes later. Following the occurrence it was determined that a drive gear bearing in one of the autopilot servo motors had worn, causing the drive gear on the auto pilot clutch to seize. The autopilot system had been electrically disconnected prior to this flight while awaiting scheduled maintenance. However, despite this action, there was still a mechanical connection between the autopilot servo motors and the aircraft's main control cables through bridle cables. When the clutch seized, an unusual force was transmitted to the main control cables through the bridle cables. Company maintenance personnel will be raising a service difficulty report (SDR) to Transport Canada on this occurrence.