Light sport aircraft instructor reported an uneventful landing due to inflight loss of later control...

Attributes
ACN	1741959
Time
Date	202005
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Light Sport Aircraft
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Other Pattern Downwind
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	None
Component
Aircraft Component	Flap Control (Trailing & Leading Edge)
Person 1
Function	Instructor Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Commercial
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 68 Flight Crew Total 532.6 Flight Crew Type 3.9
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control

Narrative:

A student that owned his own light sport airplane; with a current sport pilots license was being trained by myself in the pattern. We had a number of successful landings. Winds were 280-300 with around 6 knts of wind. We opted for runway xx at ZZZ. We were practicing approaches with different flap settings. This aircraft has flaperons. We planned to do one more landing to a full stop. On the downwind my student told me that his controls were stuck and did not have lateral control. I took over the controls and confirmed this. The lateral control was down to about 5% of what is normally available; and felt very 'notchy'. This concerned me because I did not want to break them any further. I contacted tower; let them know we had a control surface issue; and needed to land. I opted to land with no flaps; to not risk making the situation worse with the flaperons. With a combination of limited lateral movement and rudder I managed to get us onto final of [runway] xx. As I slowed; I noticed I had less movement available to me. I was able to keep the runway lined up and came in fast. Once I was in ground effect I had effectively zero lateral control. None the less; I had an uneventful landing and was able to taxi to the ramp. The plane is going to get looked at by a mechanic. However I want to bring up how this could be helped in the future. In training we practice engine out emergencies a lot; but never control surface issues. I will be implementing it into my training with students; and maybe should be implemented into the acs.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Light sport aircraft Instructor reported an uneventful landing due to inflight loss of later control.

Narrative: A student that owned his own light sport airplane; with a current Sport Pilots License was being trained by myself in the pattern. We had a number of successful landings. Winds were 280-300 with around 6 knts of wind. We opted for Runway XX at ZZZ. We were practicing approaches with different flap settings. This aircraft has flaperons. We planned to do one more landing to a full stop. On the downwind my student told me that his controls were stuck and did not have lateral control. I took over the controls and confirmed this. The lateral control was down to about 5% of what is normally available; and felt very 'notchy'. This concerned me because I did not want to break them any further. I contacted Tower; let them know we had a control surface issue; and needed to land. I opted to land with no flaps; to not risk making the situation worse with the flaperons. with a combination of limited lateral movement and rudder I managed to get us onto final of [Runway] XX. As I slowed; I noticed I had less movement available to me. I was able to keep the runway lined up and came in fast. Once I was in ground effect I had effectively zero lateral control. None the less; I had an uneventful landing and was able to taxi to the ramp. The plane is going to get looked at by a mechanic. However I want to bring up how this could be helped in the future. In training we practice engine out emergencies a lot; but never control surface issues. I will be implementing it into my training with students; and maybe should be implemented into the ACS.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.