2024-04 · NASA ASRS report 2104747
DA 20 Eclipse flight crew reported a stuck throttle during landing. They were able to troubleshoot the issue and landed safely.
On Day 0 flying a DA 20 Eclipse at approximately XA:15 hours I as an instructor was conducting night flight training with a student. A night cross country from ZZZ to ZZZ1 then back to ZZZ with multiple night landings at ZZZ was conducted. At ZZZ the winds were at 130 degrees at 7 knots. In the pattern at 2900 feet MSL it was noticed that there was a strong tail wind. As an instructor I was giving my student flight instruction on night landings. A landing was attempted on Runway XX at ZZZ; during ground effect it was noticed that the airplane was failing to descend to the runway and floated near the end the end of Runway XX. In order to avoid an off-field landing I initiated a go-around for Runway XX. Upon climb out I noticed that the throttle was no longer responding to any input. Once above 500 feet MSL the take-off flaps were retracted; and I attempted to trouble shoot. I cycled the throttle control multiple times but no input was affecting the manifold pressure. I checked the throttle tension control but no adjustments made any changes to the lack of throttle control. It was noticed that the RPM was stuck at 2000; regardless of any input of throttle. After this I cycled the magneto's but no change was noticed. Immediately I squawked XXXX and tuned into the emergency frequency on 121.5 and [requested priority handling]. I began circling the airport while I was formulating a plan to land the airplane safely. I was able to get in touch with ZZZ Approach who was monitoring the emergency frequency 121.5. They advised that they were attempting to get in contact with ZZZ air traffic personnel to assist. I then informed ZZZ Approach that I was going to lean the mixture in an attempt to decrease the RPM's and descend. At this point the airplane was 2650 feet MSL. I circled the airport once more and began leaning the mixture. Once established on final approach we began to descend. I was able to input take-off flaps but was still too high and too fast approximately 80 knots and 2300 feet MSL one mile from the runway. I continued to lean the mixture in efforts to decrease the altitude. We began to descend once more while I adjusted the mixture to decrease the altitude. I was able to descend and put the main landing gear on the ground. Once the main landing gear touched the ground I leaned the mixture completely and shut off the fuel. We used the majority of the runway for our ground roll. At this time the engine had shut off completely. I was still transmitting on 121.5 and advised ZZZ Approach that we landed on Runway XX at ZZZ. While on the runway I heard that there was inbound traffic. I advised on CTAF that our airplane was still on Runway XX and we were attempting to restart the engine to taxi off Runway XX. I was able to restart the engine and the RPM rose to 2000 regardless of any input of the throttle. I once again utilized the mixture to control the RPM's and taxied off the runway. Upon engine shut down I made contact with ZZZ Approach via cell phone and informed them that we had landed safely with no injuries or damage to the airplane.
At about XA:15 to XA:20 on Day 0 I and my flight instructor were conducting a night flight from ZZZ to ZZZ1 then back to ZZZ. We made it to ZZZ1 and back to ZZZ just fine and decided to do a few more night landings at ZZZ. The winds at the time were 130 degrees at 7 knots. I had the flight controls for the first two landing at ZZZ and landed safely and took off safely. I then gave my Instructor the flight controls to also get some landings in. He got up to pattern altitude at 2900 feet MSL came around and attempted to land on runway XX. He had difficulty getting the plane to descend down to the runway and floated down the runway for a bit. We then decided to do a go-around and on our climb out we found that our throttle control was no longer responding. After we got 500 feet MSL from the runway we took T/O flaps out and started to troubleshoot. My instructor checked and adjusted the throttle tension control but those changes made no difference. At this point; we realized that our RPM was stuck at 2000; and adding and cutting power would not affect it. At this point; I cycled the right and left magneto's but there was no change in RPM. My instructor requested me to squawk XXXX and change to the emergency frequency on 121.5. So I followed his instructions and did both. As we were circling back in for runway XX; we got in contact with ZZZ approach on 121.5 They helped us through the flight and told us to use the mixture as our power. We ended up circling the airport one more time at about 2700 feet MSL and were unable to climb. We then prepared to make a landing using the mixture as our power. On our way in we were approaching fast going about 80 knots at 2300 feet MSL so my flight instructor put in T/O flaps and decreased the mixture to try to slow us down. He then got a good decent down to the runway and prepared to cut the mixture once we got the landing gears on the runway. Since we cut our mixture off we came to a complete stop on the runway and let ZZZ approach on 121.5 know that we had safely landed on XX with no damage but we had no power so we were stuck on XX. Approach told us that there was another aircraft on a 6-mile final for XX so we switched over to XXX.X to let traffic know that we are currently stuck on XX. We then tried to start the aircraft back up to clear the runway and eventually got the aircraft started but the RPMs shot back up to 2000 and had to use the mixture for power to taxi and park at the FBO. We told traffic that we were now clear of runway XX and that they could take that runway now. My instructor called ZZZ approach using his cellphone to inform then that we had made it safely with no injuries and no damage to the aircraft.
The reporter indicated that a bolt was not torqued down by the engine manufacturer which caused a cable running to the throttle body to become loose. Where it came loose the engine remained at 2000RPM regardless of the throttle position.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
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