What happened to Dave's engine? Ignition Failure? Fuel Stoppage?

Best Regards,

Bill Palmer


I am still trying to find out.

Paul Lamar

Ok, sounds like I have some fessing up to do...

I took my mom up for a flight on her birthday and we went to overfly the
area we are going to be doing a memorial pass today. I was entering a
user
waypoint in my hand held GPS and my hand must have accidentally hit the
'cold start' switch. That switch doubles the injector duration and is
used
for starting in extremely cold temperatures. But it was too much fuel for
the engine to keep me aloft (just an occasional sputter). I was only at
about 1100 AGL at the time so my emergency procedures only got as far as:
turn toward airport, switch fuel tank, aux fuel pump, verify fuel
pressure,
primary switches turned on... shit, time to find a place to land this
thing... call mayday, choose best spot, fly under traffic signal and onto
road.

Mom was cool and collected the whole time. We were very lucky to find a
gap
in traffic, the cars were waiting for the light I flew under.

---SNIP---

David, I assume the traffic light was GREEN!!!  And  will you be able to use this experience towards a Specialty Certificate in Gastroenterology?

Nice flying.  I don't think you need a caged switch on your
mixture enrichment  as you are never going to let this
happen again.  For the rest of us, the covered  switch
or a warning LED is probably appropriate.

Joel