A decathlon pilot reported his throttle failed enroute; so he turned back to departure airport and; ...

Narrative:

During enroute segment of flight pilot attempted power reduction and discovered that engine was unresponsive to throttle control. Pilot decided to return to flight's airport of origin. Upon arrival overhead [airport] emergency was declared (no throttle response) and normal pattern was entered. On base to final turn fuel mixture was set to full lean and aircraft was landed in a normal glide. No-power landing was executed without incident ... No injury or damage occurred. Subsequent examination of aircraft revealed that maintenance shop had failed to install cotter pin which linked throttle to engine. Aircraft had just come out of a maintenance shop. There was no response from ATC or ground personnel to pilot's 'emergency' declaration.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Decathlon pilot reported his throttle failed enroute; so he turned back to departure airport and; when landing was assured; shut down the engine with mixture control.

Narrative: During enroute segment of flight pilot attempted power reduction and discovered that engine was unresponsive to throttle control. Pilot decided to return to flight's airport of origin. Upon arrival overhead [airport] emergency was declared (no throttle response) and normal pattern was entered. On base to final turn fuel mixture was set to full lean and aircraft was landed in a normal glide. No-power landing was executed without incident ... no injury or damage occurred. Subsequent examination of aircraft revealed that maintenance shop had failed to install cotter pin which linked throttle to engine. Aircraft had just come out of a maintenance shop. There was no response from ATC or ground personnel to pilot's 'emergency' declaration.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	978473
Time
Date	201110
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Decathlon 8KCAB
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Landing
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	VFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Throttle/Power Level
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 18 Flight Crew Total 1989 Flight Crew Type 390
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

A decathlon pilot reported his throttle failed enroute; so he turned back to departure airport and; when landing was assured; shut down the engine with mixture control.