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A fire fighting aircraft returned to land when an engine began backfiring after takeoff because the mixture control setting had been changed on the runway before power application. An emergency was declare; the retardant dropped and the engine shutdown for landing.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 849474 |
| Time | |
| Date | 200908 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZZZ.Airport |
| State Reference | US |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Light | Daylight |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | Light Transport |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 137 |
| Flight Phase | Takeoff |
| Flight Plan | None |
| Component | |
| Aircraft Component | Powerplant Fuel Control |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Pilot Flying Captain |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Multiengine |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 38 Flight Crew Total 13000 Flight Crew Type 1400 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy |
Narrative:
We were number two for takeoff. Another tanker before us had a mechanical problem. The tower cleared the tanker to taxi down the runway to exit as soon as possible. We were cleared into position to hold. We had a left engine that was running rich. While waiting we put the mixture in lean. We were then cleared for takeoff. We were at about 200 ft when the left engine started to backfire. The emergency procedure on takeoff for engine problems is abort the load; identify the engine and secure the affected engine then run the emergency checklist. (The retardant we dropped landed in a field and the tail end of the load landed across a road.) we called the tower to return to land; we were cleared to land. The forest service then sent out two fire trucks to wash the retardant off the road. The way to prevent this from happening again is to never move the mixtures from rich once you are cleared on to the runway.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: A fire fighting aircraft returned to land when an engine began backfiring after takeoff because the mixture control setting had been changed on the runway before power application. An emergency was declare; the retardant dropped and the engine shutdown for landing.
Narrative: We were number two for takeoff. Another tanker before us had a mechanical problem. The Tower cleared the tanker to taxi down the runway to exit as soon as possible. We were cleared into position to hold. We had a left engine that was running rich. While waiting we put the mixture in lean. We were then cleared for takeoff. We were at about 200 FT when the left engine started to backfire. The emergency procedure on takeoff for engine problems is abort the load; identify the engine and secure the affected engine then run the Emergency Checklist. (The retardant we dropped landed in a field and the tail end of the load landed across a road.) We called the Tower to return to land; we were cleared to land. The forest service then sent out two fire trucks to wash the retardant off the road. The way to prevent this from happening again is to never move the mixtures from rich once you are cleared on to the runway.
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.