At 10:30 mountain time, a Piper PA-18-150 lost power on takeoff and struck the perimeter fence at El Tiro Gliderport. The pilot was not injured. The pilot said he was making a flight prior to towing gliders to make sure that the airplane was working properly. He conducted a preflight and saw the fuel selector pointing toward the left. The pilot said he had been flying a Cessna 120 that has a similar looking fuel selector but operates opposite the Super Cub. In the 120, the left position is fuel on, in the Cub its fuel off. The engine sputtered on takeoff and the pilot tried to slip the airplane back to the runway, but the engine momentarily caught again and pushed him into the fence.
May 18, Tucson, Ariz. / Piper Super Cub
At 10:30 mountain time, a Piper PA-18-150 lost power on takeoff and struck the perimeter fence at El Tiro Gliderport. The pilot was not injured. The pilot said he was making a flight prior to towing gliders to make sure that the airplane was working properly. He conducted a preflight and saw the fuel selector pointing toward the left. The pilot said he had been flying a Cessna 120 that has a similar looking fuel selector but operates opposite the Super Cub. In the 120, the left position is fuel on, in the Cub its fuel off. The engine sputtered on takeoff and the pilot tried to slip the airplane back to the runway, but the engine momentarily caught again and pushed him into the fence....
Key Takeaways:
- A Piper PA-18-150 lost power on takeoff during a test flight at El Tiro Gliderport and struck a perimeter fence, though the pilot was uninjured.
- The pilot mistakenly set the fuel selector to "off," confusing it with a similar-looking control on a Cessna 120 he had recently flown, where that position means "fuel on."
- After the engine sputtered on takeoff, a brief surge in power prevented an emergency landing, pushing the aircraft into the fence.
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