Narrative:

Getting ready for our arrival we got cleared down to 5000 ft and to expect a right downwind. In the descent and to slow the speed the first officer brought out the spoilers. Once that happened we got a caution message of ib flt spoilers and ib spoilerons. I went to the flight manual and it stated if the caution messages didn't go away to increase landing distance by 20% with reverser's and 25% without reverser's. The longest runway is 7200 ft and the winds were coming from the west and gusty. I looked at factored landing distance and added 20% and it showed me more than 8000 ft required. I wanted to talk to dispatch to see what they came up with for numbers because I didn't trust my math and I could have been looking at the wrong column. At this point I wanted to let the controller know that we had 6600 pounds of fuel and I was thinking that we need to make a decision to go to our alternate. I was having a hard time trying to get dispatch and I told the controller that we were going to plan to go to our alternate. Once we got up to 10000 ft I was able to get a hold of them and they said the numbers were good for a zero flap landing and I was a little confused because it was a spoileron issue and I needed to know the distance for that because my math said differently. He said it was good and that there was 5571 ft. So now my thought is that for this particular runway they want us to do a zero flap landing. While I was talking to them he also said that he sent an ACARS message about the zero flap and now I made up my mind that we are going back to our original destination for a zero flap landing and in the process I sent them an ACARS that my caution message was for ib flt spoiler and ib spoilerons. At this point I should have been more aggressive in questioning them and why they were giving me info for flaps zero. I felt like I was getting the run around and since we had number from dispatch for zero flaps we went ahead and planned for it and I declared and emergency since it was an abnormal landing. So at this point we were set to do the flap zero landing. I told the flight attendants and said to treat it like a normal landing and I also informed the passengers. My first officer was uncomfortable about doing the landing so I took the controls and landed the airplane successfully and without incident. I taxied to the gate and after the engines were shut off and officially parked I called dispatch. At this point dispatch was explaining how they factored the landing distance and I was just glad to be on the ground. I have definitely learned a lot from this experience and I will never forget it and I believe it has taught me to be a more efficient and better pilot. I think there was a mis-understanding which turned out ok but not the way I was intending. In the future; if something like this happens again I will make sure I have maintenance with me on the radio or ACARS to make sure we are all on the same page. I will probably try to use ACARS first before trying the radio. I thought the radio would have been more efficient but not in this situation.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ200 experienced caution messages for inboard flight spoilers and spoilerons when spoilers were extended during descent. The crew was instructed by Dispatch to land with flaps up which they complied with successfully.

Narrative: Getting ready for our arrival we got cleared down to 5000 FT and to expect a right downwind. In the descent and to slow the speed the First Officer brought out the spoilers. Once that happened we got a caution message of IB Flt Spoilers and IB Spoilerons. I went to the Flight Manual and it stated if the caution messages didn't go away to increase landing distance by 20% with reverser's and 25% without reverser's. The longest runway is 7200 FT and the winds were coming from the west and gusty. I looked at factored landing distance and added 20% and it showed me more than 8000 FT required. I wanted to talk to dispatch to see what they came up with for numbers because I didn't trust my math and I could have been looking at the wrong column. At this point I wanted to let the controller know that we had 6600 LBS of fuel and I was thinking that we need to make a decision to go to our alternate. I was having a hard time trying to get Dispatch and I told the controller that we were going to plan to go to our alternate. Once we got up to 10000 FT I was able to get a hold of them and they said the numbers were good for a zero flap landing and I was a little confused because it was a spoileron issue and I needed to know the distance for that because my math said differently. He said it was good and that there was 5571 FT. So now my thought is that for this particular runway they want us to do a zero flap landing. While I was talking to them he also said that he sent an ACARS message about the zero flap and now I made up my mind that we are going back to our original destination for a zero flap landing and in the process I sent them an ACARS that my caution message was for IB Flt Spoiler and IB Spoilerons. At this point I should have been more aggressive in questioning them and why they were giving me info for flaps zero. I felt like I was getting the run around and since we had number from dispatch for zero flaps we went ahead and planned for it and I declared and emergency since it was an abnormal landing. So at this point we were set to do the flap zero landing. I told the flight attendants and said to treat it like a normal landing and I also informed the passengers. My first officer was uncomfortable about doing the landing so I took the controls and landed the airplane successfully and without incident. I taxied to the gate and after the engines were shut off and officially parked I called dispatch. At this point dispatch was explaining how they factored the landing distance and I was just glad to be on the ground. I have definitely learned a lot from this experience and I will never forget it and I believe it has taught me to be a more efficient and better pilot. I think there was a mis-understanding which turned out OK but not the way I was intending. In the future; if something like this happens again I will make sure I have Maintenance with me on the radio or ACARS to make sure we are all on the same page. I will probably try to use ACARS first before trying the radio. I thought the radio would have been more efficient but not in this situation.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.