dillardrg
Pre-takeoff checklist
The Ag Cat D model with the PW Turbine engine was introduced around 1978.
I was working as a salesman for the largest AgCat distributor, Mid Continent Aircraft, as a salesman at the time. I was tapped to fly the first one on a demo trip through MS and AR.
I Met the factory rep in Malden and flew the D model to Hayti. The factory rep followed me in a Tiger.
This aircraft had a "condition lever" mounted on the right side of the panel in a vertical slot with indentations labeled from top to bottom; "Hi Idle", "Low Idle" and "Idle Cutoff" at the bottom.
"Hi Idle" was for flight, "Low Idle" was for ground ops, and "Idle Cutoff" was to shut down the engine.
When I landed at MC's grass strip the Tiger was right behind me on final. As I was rolling out, I reached up to move the "Condition Lever" out of "Hi Idle" to "Low Idle" and missed the "Low Idle" detent which moved the lever to "Idle Cutoff".
I realized immediately what I had done and moved the lever back up.
Too late, the engine shut down and I rolled to a stop and turned toward the side of the strip. I looked back to see the Tiger with brakes locked sliding toward my tail.
He stopped in time, and, as I was not the only one to do this, the factory redesigned the "Condition Lever" so that wouldn't happen again.