A friend of mine asked me to test fly his Sig Senior Kadet today as he has yet to solo. I reluctantly accepted the offer as I do not like to fly others' airplanes. He starts it up, does preflight and calls me over. I ask him if it's ready and he gives a thumbs up. I do a quick preflight and off it goes. Wow, the plane jumps up after only a few feet and flies nicely. I reduce throttle after climb out and notice the left stick is all the way down with the trim all the way down as well. The throttle/linkage/carb arm or something is stuck. His engine(MDS .78) is stuck at about 1/2 throttle. I freaked and started calling the others in to me. We were all gathered there trying to figure out what would be the best way to get this plane down. This plane floats, floats and floats. There was no way I could land it at half throttle. This one guys tells me to fly it until the fuel runs out, then dead stick it in.

I began to move throttle stick back and forth trying to work the linkage and wouldn't you know it, the engine shuts down. Ok,,,now I have a dead stick I have to deal with as the plane's flying on the down wind leg. I quickly turn the plane around into the head wind and bleed off altitude. I safely land the plane with everyone watching.

Lesson learned,,,don't panic, get help and pray.