Narrative:

During preflight; we found the stick pusher was not working properly. During the stall protection test; the stick pusher would make a loud grinding sound. The sound could be heard as far back as the emergency exit row; as well as being felt in the floor boards till at least row three. It had been written up a few days prior but the corrective action was 'ops check good'. Contract mechanics came out; removed all the floor boards in the cockpit and were able to recreate the grinding sound. They determined that the stall pusher servo was failing; most likely due to a bearing that was about to fail. After a lengthy delay; maintenance informed us that they had the part in another station but it wouldn't arrive for several hours. Maintenance control then tried to get the contract mechanics to defer the stick shakers. They refused to do so because there was nothing wrong with the stick shakers; it was the stick pusher that was failing.at this point we were told that we would have to ferry the airplane as is. The crew discussed with the contract mechanics what was wrong with the airplane and whether flying it in its current state was a safe option. We determined that the worst possible outcome would be the stick pusher servo seizing; which would prevent the control column from being pulled aft; an essential part of controlled flight. I informed scheduling and dispatch that we were refusing to fly the plane as is due to it being unsafe. Dispatch seemed somewhat upset that we were refusing to fly. Scheduling just told us to sit tight and they would figure it out. A few minutes later the chief pilot called. I explained everything to him and he agreed that ferrying the airplane in its current state was not the safest option. We were subsequently reassigned to different flying.the FAA should not allow airlines to issue their own ferry permits unsupervised. There was an issue with the flight controls that had the potential for disastrous results. Since fixing the problem was going to take too long and the contract mechanics refused to defer an unrelated item; maintenance control decided it would be in their best interest for us to ferry the plane--with no passengers of course. If a plane is in such bad shape that we can't fly it with passengers on board then there is absolutely no reason the crew should be expected to fly it.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An ERJ Captain believed the company was pushing him to fly an aircraft he had determined was not airworthy due to a binding stick pusher servo.

Narrative: During preflight; we found the stick pusher was not working properly. During the stall protection test; the stick pusher would make a loud grinding sound. The sound could be heard as far back as the emergency exit row; as well as being felt in the floor boards till at least row three. It had been written up a few days prior but the corrective action was 'Ops check good'. Contract mechanics came out; removed all the floor boards in the cockpit and were able to recreate the grinding sound. They determined that the Stall Pusher Servo was failing; most likely due to a bearing that was about to fail. After a lengthy delay; Maintenance informed us that they had the part in another station but it wouldn't arrive for several hours. Maintenance Control then tried to get the contract mechanics to defer the stick shakers. They refused to do so because there was nothing wrong with the stick shakers; it was the stick pusher that was failing.At this point we were told that we would have to ferry the airplane as is. The crew discussed with the contract mechanics what was wrong with the airplane and whether flying it in its current state was a safe option. We determined that the worst possible outcome would be the stick pusher servo seizing; which would prevent the control column from being pulled aft; an essential part of controlled flight. I informed Scheduling and Dispatch that we were refusing to fly the plane as is due to it being unsafe. Dispatch seemed somewhat upset that we were refusing to fly. Scheduling just told us to sit tight and they would figure it out. A few minutes later the Chief Pilot called. I explained everything to him and he agreed that ferrying the airplane in its current state was not the safest option. We were subsequently reassigned to different flying.The FAA should not allow airlines to issue their own ferry permits unsupervised. There was an issue with the flight controls that had the potential for disastrous results. Since fixing the problem was going to take too long and the contract mechanics refused to defer an unrelated item; Maintenance Control decided it would be in their best interest for us to ferry the plane--with no passengers of course. If a plane is in such bad shape that we can't fly it with passengers on board then there is absolutely no reason the crew should be expected to fly it.

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.