Fuel shut off valve

800ft runway, took off to the south, 30 acre field joins the end of runway. 150ft in the air maybe 200ft from the end of runway, engine slowed and quit. still had 10 deg. of flaps going about 50mph. landed in the field crossways, no problem. the farmer did a late cutting of Alfalfa and it was about 20, deg. so it was hard. Started right up, turned , taxied about 300ft towards the runway, quit again. Quit twice more before I got to the end of my runway. I finally grabbed the fuel shut off and knew something was not right. I looked at the shut off valve and figured it out. The tin cover over the valve handle that the cable attaches to was cocked to one side. the screw that holds the cover to the valve came loose. I shut the valve off last time I flew and when I pushed handle in it only opened the valve 1/8. Everything fixed, locktight on the screw. and part of the preflight now. Funny thing is I almost never shut the fuel off.

Glad it worked out good for you, go buy a lottery ticket!

algonquin said:

Glad it worked out good for you, go buy a lottery ticket!

Click to expand...

I did

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Good thing you weren’t taking off north! Glad it worked out.

Wasn't your day to die!

Happy to hear you did not need to replace any fabric, hope your shorts were not hard to clean.

Looking at your photo I see fuel stain, looks to me like you have some leaking going on that needs attention.

aktango58 said:

Looking at your photo I see fuel stain, looks to me like you have some leaking going on that needs attention.

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Saw same thing and thought the same.... but refrained from commenting to avoid turning this into another weird thread, that started with a simple question about turnbuckle size..... that “smart” people spent WAY more time writing weird degrading responses to, than just answering the simple question that was asked!!



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Nice to not read this in the FAA AIN data or on Kathrin's reports since recently a Carbon Cub went down due to a fuel valve indexing issue.

Glad it worked out Tim. There was a pretty nice Super Cub totalled a year or so ago from almost the same thing. Engine stumbled on take off, then came back and then quit. Only thing found was the fuel valve was cocked out of detent. Pilot thought maybe he could have hit it with his leg when getting in. Glad you were able to get it on the ground with bending anything.

Like Dave said, to the north not sure I could have made a field. The 30 acre field saved my azz

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Similar thing happened to me a few years ago. Selector bumped out of detent (old selector valve). Engine quit at about 200', but I had just enough runway left to put it down without issue. Didn't buy a lottery ticket, but bought a new selector valve the next day!

You used up a lot of bonus points on that one.

Thanks for having the good sense and humility to share this event. It could well save someone's else's life and or lots of $$$.

That's why I posted it

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makes the idea of checking the selector every takeoff appealing

aktango58 said:

makes the idea of checking the selector every takeoff appealing

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That's what I did on my Champ and Dans J3 if I had shut the fuel off.

Glenn

Tim said:

Like Dave said, to the north not sure I could have made a field. The 30 acre field saved my azz

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Click to expand...

Makes one wonder what "prize " you would have gotten for that booboo. Last time you got new Jack stands

Glenn

Having the fuel selector right next to the trim handle seems like a bad idea. Flying around in the Winter with a thick coat on, it's easy to catch it as you add trim. The detents on my fuel selector are in good shape but the handle can still be snagged by a coat sleeve, as you are trying to pull your lap belt up from the floor.

I was taking off with a high time pilot in the front who had lots of taildragger time, but not much in a Supercub. At 200 feet the engine quit. The primer bought us some distance until it ran out juice. I put the plane in a tiny field but was coming up on a fence and treeline. A long time ago, someone had mentioned using a ground loop to stop in an emergency. The instructions were to lift the tail as you went around, so that you didn't hit the wings. I pushed the stick forward as the ground loop started and we spun around like a top, with no damage.

Inspecting the airplane showed that the fuel selector was not in its detent. Nowadays, I check the selector every landing, take off and trim adjustment. A better mouse trap would be nice.

Jonny