The freeplay of control surfaces is one typical type of structural nonlinearity, which is caused by design, manufacture, assembly, etc. It may easily lead to the limit cycle oscillation (LCO). LCO usually shows equal amplitude vibration, and it may influence the integrity of structure and cause structural failure if the amplitude is too large. Nonlinear flutter analysis method in time domain for control surface with freeplay is investigated and used to compute the nonlinear flutter result of certain aircraft. The result is compared with that achieved by frequency domain method. The comparison shows good compliance regarding critical flutter velocity and frequency. The time-domain method can precisely predict the LCO critical velocity. The method can also be proof of compliance with airworthiness standards．