Puzzling development when idling

[bsangs]

Very strange occurrence yesterday. As we were coming in to dock, things went a little awry, and my helmswoman may have panicked a bit. Nothing major mind you, but enough to get her flustered. Safely secured to the dock, she throttled down to idle, but the engine was going at about 1500 RPM. She called me back to the cockpit with a, "Why is this happening?" call. Was indeed odd, as she had the throttle all the way down. And by all the way, I mean down farther than I normally bring it. I'm thinking she gave it an adrenaline push. I gave the lever a little tap up, and the revving stopped and it idled normally. This has never happened before, and I certainly had no explanation as to why. (Talking with a dock neighbor, he joked, "Cool, you have overdrive.") I tried to recreate it, but it didn't happen again. Was wondering if this has ever happened to anyone here, and, of course, if anyone has any idea how/why it could happen at all? Thanks, as always.

 

[Jerry VB]

The throttle lever is a rotating arm that rotates from mostly down (idle) to mostly up (full). Inside the pedestal, there should be a stop that prevents the throttle lever from rotating past the stop. My guess is that her "adrenaline push" pushed the throttle lever past the stop at which point it would start pulling again, causing the engine to throttle up.

 

[bsangs]

The throttle lever is a rotating arm that rotates from mostly down (idle) to mostly up (full). Inside the pedestal, there should be a stop that prevents the throttle lever from rotating past the stop. My guess is that her "adrenaline push" pushed the throttle lever past the stop at which point it would start pulling again, causing the engine to throttle up.

I'll take that.