Training Tip: Friction affliction
Flight instructor Michael Burns smoothly increased the angle of attack on the Cessna 172’s generous wing, his feet alive on the rudder pedals as the airplane stumbled into a stall in the choppy air.
I had just finished a series of slow flight, stalls, and steep-turn maneuvers and relinquished the controls to him. Burns acknowledged the transfer in a positive manner that would make any check pilot nod with approval.
As we walked back to the Southern Maine Aviation hangar at the Sanford Seacoast Regional Airport, Burns commented that when he had taken control for his stall demos, he was surprised at how tight I had set the throttle friction lock on the 2006 Skyhawk SP.
Well, we’re all a product of our experience; mine has included flying and instructing in a variety of older trainers prone, among their other age-related quirks and quandaries, to having the throttle vibrate out of position even with the friction lock carefully adjusted. It only takes one rude surprise for a pilot to vow never to let that happen again, and one way to keep that promise is to wind up the throttle lock rather tightly. Evidently this had become more of a habit than I realized.
Avoiding throttle slippage is the reason your instructor nags you to keep a hand on the throttle during critical flight operations like climbing after takeoff. Final approach is another phase for guarding the throttle in a hands-on fashion, both to simplify fine tuning your descent rate, and to be prepared for a go-around.
Out of curiosity, I entered “friction lock” as a search term in the Aviation Safety Reporting System database. It produced 24 instances implicating the device in events that motivated pilots to file safety-related reports. Not all were throttle friction locks; one report by a biplane pilot described an engine failure after takeoff when a friction lock on a mixture control was not properly engaged.
So get a grip—perhaps not a “death grip”—and guard your throttle. And if you happen to fly an aircraft that’s seen a few more miles than most, or is unfamiliar to you, add a twist for me.
