Joined the 'Declared an Emergency' Club
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MauleSkinner
Touchdown! Greaser!
Hi, Dana too…gladameecha!My name is Dana too. Just not obvious from the login handle.
Maxnr
Line Up and Wait
Me too. Had a similar experience in my NORDO Luscombe 8A. BTW, not my first emergency. The A65 went full throttle. Could not retard. Asked myself "If I was in a Sopworth Camel, what would I do?" So I did mags: off/on. Landed OK and even taxied to parking. Found the anchor clamp on the throttle teleflex cable loose. A65 does not have a mixture control.
Not too many. Unlike Bob or Joe, we're not used to having any other Danas around so it gets confusing when there is.
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Albany Tom
This was worth a thread! Thanks for posting the story.
masloki
Pattern Altitude
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Nunya
TL,DR: mechanic screwed up, I dun fixed his mess up.
Epilogue to this saga. Mechanic released the plane Friday right before closing time and queried if I had any other engine issues. I stated no, so he said a ground run wouldn’t be necessary. As the work was somewhat involved, lower cowl needs to be r&r to get at the throttle, I figured a test flight was in order before embarking on a 6 hour flight with full family.
Get to the run up area and throttle response is different. Just a little bit but note to myself something to keep an eye on. Run up was good but pulling to idle gave a good stumble and that was new. Hmm. Fine, don’t pull to full idle and let’s finish the test in air. I had requested an orbit at 2k above the airport, cleared for takeoff. Push partial power, everything green. Full power and it tops at 20” MAP. Abort takeoff and go back to the terminal.
Call the mechanic. No answer. Text the mechanic. No answer. Ask the FBO for a Saturday mechanic. They state that is a known issue - no one works Saturdays. Frick! Call the IA who did a prebuy and became a good friend. Working through the throttle, it is set correctly at both stops. Let’s look around. Found the air box hose feeding the throttle absolutely buggered up. I got to spend 2 hours on the ramp with the fuel sampler screwdriver, leather man, and borrowed wrench, connecting the hose correctly (supervised maintenance - I reckon this doesn’t fall under typical owner mx). Took me a while to figure out I needed to disconnect the lower cowl from upper to take pressure off the hose. Live and learn.
Second test flight, a dream. Flight home, no drama. Fini.
Epilogue to this saga. Mechanic released the plane Friday right before closing time and queried if I had any other engine issues. I stated no, so he said a ground run wouldn’t be necessary. As the work was somewhat involved, lower cowl needs to be r&r to get at the throttle, I figured a test flight was in order before embarking on a 6 hour flight with full family.
Get to the run up area and throttle response is different. Just a little bit but note to myself something to keep an eye on. Run up was good but pulling to idle gave a good stumble and that was new. Hmm. Fine, don’t pull to full idle and let’s finish the test in air. I had requested an orbit at 2k above the airport, cleared for takeoff. Push partial power, everything green. Full power and it tops at 20” MAP. Abort takeoff and go back to the terminal.
Call the mechanic. No answer. Text the mechanic. No answer. Ask the FBO for a Saturday mechanic. They state that is a known issue - no one works Saturdays. Frick! Call the IA who did a prebuy and became a good friend. Working through the throttle, it is set correctly at both stops. Let’s look around. Found the air box hose feeding the throttle absolutely buggered up. I got to spend 2 hours on the ramp with the fuel sampler screwdriver, leather man, and borrowed wrench, connecting the hose correctly (supervised maintenance - I reckon this doesn’t fall under typical owner mx). Took me a while to figure out I needed to disconnect the lower cowl from upper to take pressure off the hose. Live and learn.
Second test flight, a dream. Flight home, no drama. Fini.
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Well done! I'm impressed you were willing to dive in and figure it out yourself. A ground run, or even better a checkout flight, while the mechanic is still there, is always prudent, although not always possible when it's close to "quittin' time".
40YearDream
Pre-takeoff checklist
OP: As a wanna-be Mooney driver (only have a couple hours in the club J-model so far), what speed(s) did you use on a dead-stick approach? How did it compare to a normal landing?
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Ari
A&P's are a trust-but-verify profession, for sure. Nice work getting this sorted out on the ramp, all before loading your family into the plane. Did it idle smoothly after you fixed the SCAT tubing? Is there anything you would do differently in the post-emergency-landing phase if it happened again, other than scheduling your emergency landing for a Monday morning?
masloki
Pattern Altitude
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Nunya
Given home weather - the risk of not figuring it out was somewhere between 1-7 more days there. I had incentive to give it a try, under supervision. If it were anything but a buggered up hose, I'd likely still be there. Closer to NOLA though
Not a dead-stick landing. Best glide is 91 KIAS which coincides with my IFR approach speed, but I didn't kill the engine until I was 10 feet above the runway. Keep at it the J; they are fantastic traveling machines.
Idle is not where I want it but will tweak it back to spec during annual in a few weeks - it's a mixture issue now. A few things different. I was primed to send the family home via commercial and check myself in somewhere cheaper/couch surf at friends if things persisted - getthereitis mitigation. Handled everything by phone/email and should have gone onsite for the delivery/test run especially when away from home and mechanic new to me. Also, not pay the mx bill until flight test passes.
Zeldman
Touchdown! Greaser!
I prefer having the mechanic on board, his butt on the line sorta speak, during a run up or test flight.
brcase
En-Route
Nice Job,
I have seen a Cardinal that overran the runway and went through the airport fence with a similar issue.
My thought was the same, why not shut the engine down and land.
I do agree with, I prefer to pull the mixture to shut the engine down, easy to push it back in if you decide you need to go around.
Another good reason to practice power off approaches and landing, I would have done just like you and killed the power on final once I knew I had the runway made.
Only time I did something similar was when a student I damaged the left landing gear on a Champ during take off (hit a small berm only slightly larger than a speed bump), on short final I shut off the fuel and turned off the Mags (did not have a mixture to shut off). Propeller stop such that it never touched the pavement. A new Gear leg, repair of the gear mount and bit of fabric replaced and the plane was flying again.
Brian
CFIIG/ASEL
I have seen a Cardinal that overran the runway and went through the airport fence with a similar issue.
My thought was the same, why not shut the engine down and land.
I do agree with, I prefer to pull the mixture to shut the engine down, easy to push it back in if you decide you need to go around.
Another good reason to practice power off approaches and landing, I would have done just like you and killed the power on final once I knew I had the runway made.
Only time I did something similar was when a student I damaged the left landing gear on a Champ during take off (hit a small berm only slightly larger than a speed bump), on short final I shut off the fuel and turned off the Mags (did not have a mixture to shut off). Propeller stop such that it never touched the pavement. A new Gear leg, repair of the gear mount and bit of fabric replaced and the plane was flying again.
Brian
CFIIG/ASEL
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Ari
Coming from a glider guy, this feels a tiny bit biased. But it's not wrong.
All pilots should have the foundational stick and rudder skills to execute a power-off landing from at least somewhere in the pattern. We should have the confidence to kill the engine on final rather than try to land and brake to a halt with the engine making significant power. Transitioning from the Arrow to the 310, I learned quickly that the throttle levers in the 310 have more throw and, if you don't throw them all the way back to land, you will float. It doesn't take much thrust to run out of runway floating and then skid to a ground loop in the drainage ditch. In any plane, I think the choice between 0% power and 50% for landing is a no-brainer.
UngaWunga
Pattern Altitude
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UngaWunga
wow that looks really buggered. Rush job where they didn't check their work. I'd at least call and let them know they screwed up.