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.

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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.