PA-28 Cherokee/Archer/Dakota/Pillan/Warrior
Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 1; Flight Crew Total 361; Flight Crew Type 335
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft
It has been a long winter with not many days flight would be possible due to snow build up in front of my hangar and other winter weather related problems. I had a great clear day with the snow melted and decided to get in some takeoff and landing practice. I called the airport ASOS and found out the day was perfect with the snow melted. I got my weather briefing and called my hangar to turn on the engine preheat. I checked the plane out very carefully for this first flight in a while and added air to all three tires. The plane checked out fine so I pulled it out of the hangar. Start up was uneventful. The engine was warming up nicely. I had plenty of fuel. The radios were all working fine and the instruments were working fine. The engine was running smooth and powered up nicely. I did my engine checks and all was good to go. I taxied out and departed to stay in the pattern to do a full stop landing; one of the three I had planned to do that day. No one else was flying in the pattern or taxing on the ground. The airfield was empty of activity but for my plane. I turned cross wind and backed off a little on the throttle then flew my downwind leg and base leg. As I turned on final; I backed off on the throttle again and this time; the control went slack with a click I could feel in my hand. It would go up and down freely and make no difference in the engine speed. I was still pretty far out on final and was unable to advance the throttle to get power to continue flying to go around. I had to land. Thankfully; I had a clear runway at my home field right in front of me and my engine was still putting out some power. The power would get me to the field but would then become a problem as I needed to cut the power to get the plane down NOW. So; I waited until I had the field made for sure and then cut the power using the mixture control. The engine died with the prop frozen in front of me. A very strange feeling to be sure. I made a very good dead stick landing although there was about a 10 degree left cross wind of about 10 KTS. The plane rolled to about fifty feet from my exit taxiway. I called the FBO for help as I continued to try to start the engine. They called me back to see if I needed a tow. At that point; I did manage to start the engine at a pretty high power setting and got it rolling. I then shut the engine down again and rolled the plane off the runway onto the taxiway. Once again; I had to start the engine to get the plane all the way back to my hangar and put it away. Directly after leaving the hangar; I drove to the FBO to thank them for their help and left a note for the mechanics to have them repair my plane's throttle linkage. No one was hurt; there was no damage to anything including my plane. From the mechanics; the throttle cable broke; inside the sleeve. It was firmly attached at both the handle and the carb ends. I am making this report in hopes it might alert others with similarly old planes that the throttle system is possibly overlooked since it is so simple and hidden by all but the most searching eyes. I knew nothing about any problem growing in my throttle linkage right up to the point it broke loose and was inoperative.
The pilot of a PA28 was unable to reduce engine power while on final approach and resorted to shutting down the engine with the mixture lever. He performed a successful 'dead stick' landing with no damage or injuries. He learned later that the throttle cable had failed within the sleeve; with one end still attached to the throttle lever and the other to the carburetor.