Dash8 flight crew experience an auto feather shortly after takeoff and return for single engine land...

Narrative:

First flight of the day everything was normal except for a 10 minute delay due to ground stop. At about XA30 we made it out to the runway; again everything was normal. We were cleared for takeoff on runway xx. I was the pilot flying; applied takeoff power and noticed a minor split in the throttles. I called pilot monitoring to 'set takeoff power;' which he did. I noticed the split was still minor and as this is a normal occurrence in the dash; he called 'everything normal.' it was a smooth; very normal takeoff until about 500 ft. I noticed a slight yaw; at the same time the pilot monitoring stated the #1 engine manual light illuminated and the #1 engine auto-feathered. We went through the callouts and tried to identify the problem. There was a split second of uncertainty trying to determine if it was an unscheduled propeller feather but we noticed the torque at 50% and the propeller RPM at 200 ft and ruled that out. During the event; the pilot monitoring stated an ecu failure which we linked with a torque roll back and auto-feather. We declared the emergency with ATC; preceded with the shutdown procedure; and emergency checklist. The flight attendant briefed the passengers during the event to calm them. As the silent checklist was being run; I briefed the passengers and called back to the flight attendant to explain the situation. We returned to the field to land on runway xx with all checklists complete. On the ground; emergency vehicles were standing by; we completed the single engine after landing checklist; and taxied back to the gate. It was determined that the event occurred by the #1 ecu failing; and #1 engine manual light illuminating and the associated torque rollback caused the auto-feather system to feather the engine. There had been a history in the logbook of the ecu being faulty. It was worked on the day before and cleared. We were the first flight to take it out. It is difficult to try and avoid this situation. The only suggestion I may have is to thoroughly check the maintenance history to better prepare yourself for a possible event. Supplemental information from acn 824199: suggestions: maintenance don't be so quick to brush off a problem or some up with an MEL. There was a history of the problem with the ecu; the plane shouldn't have been in service.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Dash8 flight crew experience an auto feather shortly after takeoff and return for single engine landing. An ECU with a maintenance history is the suspected culprit.

Narrative: First flight of the day everything was normal except for a 10 minute delay due to ground stop. At about XA30 we made it out to the runway; again everything was normal. We were cleared for takeoff on Runway XX. I was the pilot flying; applied takeoff power and noticed a minor split in the throttles. I called pilot monitoring to 'set takeoff power;' which he did. I noticed the split was still minor and as this is a normal occurrence in the Dash; he called 'everything normal.' It was a smooth; very normal takeoff until about 500 FT. I noticed a slight yaw; at the same time the pilot monitoring stated the #1 engine manual light illuminated and the #1 engine auto-feathered. We went through the callouts and tried to identify the problem. There was a split second of uncertainty trying to determine if it was an unscheduled propeller feather but we noticed the torque at 50% and the propeller RPM at 200 FT and ruled that out. During the event; the pilot monitoring stated an ECU failure which we linked with a torque roll back and auto-feather. We declared the emergency with ATC; preceded with the shutdown procedure; and emergency checklist. The Flight Attendant briefed the passengers during the event to calm them. As the silent checklist was being run; I briefed the passengers and called back to the Flight Attendant to explain the situation. We returned to the field to land on Runway XX with all checklists complete. On the ground; emergency vehicles were standing by; we completed the single engine after landing checklist; and taxied back to the gate. It was determined that the event occurred by the #1 ECU failing; and #1 engine manual light illuminating and the associated torque rollback caused the auto-feather system to feather the engine. There had been a history in the logbook of the ECU being faulty. It was worked on the day before and cleared. We were the first flight to take it out. It is difficult to try and avoid this situation. The only suggestion I may have is to thoroughly check the maintenance history to better prepare yourself for a possible event. Supplemental information from ACN 824199: Suggestions: Maintenance don't be so quick to brush off a problem or some up with an MEL. There was a history of the problem with the ECU; the plane shouldn't have been in service.

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	824198
Time
Date	200902
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Dash 8-100
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Takeoff
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Fuel Control Computer
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	Pilot Not Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural Maintenance

Dash8 flight crew experience an auto feather shortly after takeoff and return for single engine landing. An ecu with a maintenance history is the suspected culprit.