Some events in flying aren’t covered by our instruction, the reading of popular or safety-specific magazines, or the emergency checklists. During these events, the pilot is left to his or her own devices, perhaps assisted by controllers and even passengers. But in the end, the pilot in command has the ultimate authority. I was presented with such an event in my Cessna P210 with a nonpilot by my side, and I learned a lot from that flight.
It was during the return trip one April from Grant County Regional Airport (GCD) in John Day, Oregon, where I hold a monthly clinic for some of my more distant cardiology patients, when I ran into trouble. The temperatures during the day had been about 40 degrees F with intermittent sleeting. After a typical departure and climb in the P210, I reached my assigned altitude of 14,000 feet in VFR conditions, where the OAT was well below freezing, typical for central and eastern Oregon in spring. Upon leveling off, I tried to retard the throttle to cruise power, but the throttle was stuck. Trying not to alarm my sole passenger, Karyn, one of our practice’s best nurses, I loosened the throttle friction control completely and tugged firmly several times. I thought about putting my right foot on the console for more leverage but decided that it wouldn’t be good for the airplane or for Karyn’s confidence in the pilot in whom she’d entrusted her life.
