This is an excerpt from a report made to the Aviation Safety Reporting System. The narrative is written by the pilot, rather than FAA or NTSB officials. To maintain anonymity, many details, such as aircraft model or airport, are often scrubbed from the reports.
Landed the Cessna 140. Upon rollout I applied power to taxi off the runway and the engine died and would not restart. We eventually had to push the plane off the runway.
The plane restarted 15 minutes later when back at the hangar.
This was a delivery of a newly purchased aircraft. The aircraft had been mostly idle for a few years prior to the event.
I suspect the following possibilities:
- Carburetor icing. I applied carburetor heat during the descent and landing but it may have been ineffective.
- Both fuel tanks were exactly at 1/4 tank. Cessna 120/140 aircraft have a warning about takeoff with less than 1/4 tank.
I also discovered, post flight, that the transponder had not inspected within required time period. When checking the logbooks, I noted the entry for installing ADS-B Out but did not check for transponder sign-off. On online ADS-B data (I know not official) I did see a prior flight with what looked like reasonable altitude.
Primary Problem: Aircraft
ACN: 2122141
I believe there is more to this than has been presented.
Is something being concealed that may have to do with insurance since is a non-,tower airport.
HHMMM!!!!
Blocked tank vents can cause these symptoms. As soon as you open the tanks to refill, the engine will run again, until the next trip when there’s too much vacuum again. Common with aircraft that have been idle for a long while, giving insects time to block them.
Carburetor ice, guaranteed. 3500 hour flight instructor. Pull carb heat at least 10 minutes before entering pattern.
Here’s a different take:
I agree this incident probably didn’t warrant an ASRS report, especially if it did not occur at a towered airport.
It seems likely this was a “first time” submission for both the commercial pilot PIC and the private pilot ‘not flying’.
Taking off with just 1/4 tank of gas, in each tank…may not be the smartest thing to do…but it’s not “illegal”. We don’t know how far/long the flight was from “ZZZ1” to “ZZZ”. They are not clear on how much gas remained after they landed…if any.
We don’t know anything about the plane itself: Cessna 140s have a long list of STC’d engine swaps/mods that impact “fuel burn” rates and useful loads.
Why the engine quit after landing & wouldn’t start again? I don’t know, but “hot start” issues in a Cessna 140…regardless of which engine it has…I doubt it.
We also don’t know how much the crew weighed? Two 200-pound bodies may not leave much room for gas, depending on how the 140 was configured (engine, metal wings, electrical…?)
However:
Read the actual ASRS report; I think the main reason they filed it was because of concerns over being “in violation” due to possible transponder/ADS-B issues, not the engine:
“Anomaly.Deviation/Discrepancy – Procedural: Published Material/ Policy”
“Anomaly.Deviation/Discrepancy – Procedural”
“When Detected: In-flight”
“Result.Flight Crew: Overcame Equipment Problem”
The only thing that is certain: They did not have a thorough ‘pre-buy’ inspection before acquiring it.
I’m not reading anything about a Pre-Buy inspection, or any details about the flight, including any trouble shooting.
This warranted an NASA report? Or publication in GA News? Sheesh! Slow news day.
So the owner felt he needed to make a report about this?
My leaf blower won’t hot start either. Problem: bad spark coil. Bigger problem: part is unobtanium. Scratch the 4th gasoline leaf blower. Bought a plug-in model with a 100ft extension cord. Perhaps GA aircraft can be powered with a long extension cord in event the pilot runs the tanks down below 1/4 full. He’s lucky he lived.
Regards/J
I have a lightly used older Stihl leaf blower that runs great but the fuel tank started to leak. The part is not available from company and no where to be found used. It went into the trash and I purchased an Echo…..I will never buy a Stihl product again.