My Plane Almost Became an Insurance Claim

In article , JimC wrote:
I don't know all the details and what I know is second hand, but it appears
a prospective buyer of a Navion lost control of the plane on the ramp and
caused some serious damage. This happened mid week at Avion Jet Center,
Sanford Airport (SFB), just north of Orlando, FL.

Haven't seen the pictures since looks like web site no longer nonexistent
but sure sounds bad. Glad the outcome was good from human angle, even if
very expensive on the wallet angle.

And quite fortunate for Jim, indeed!

Allegedly, the prospective buyer started the plane and suffered a seat
slide-back with the throttle and prop control pushed all the way in.

That's just the thing I don't understand...

Seems to me that if your seat slid back suddenly and quite unexpectedly,
the natural human reaction is to grab *something*, _anything_ to hold on to
-- that means, for one thing, pulling the yoke towards you, possibly all
the way if you had a full travel for the seat sliding backwards.

Now, the thing is... if your hand was on the throttle, wouldn't you also
happen to pull it outwards (ie, reducing power) if you slid backwards?

Granted, I'm more familiar with the Cessna spamcan designs so I don't know
if the throttles in other planes are designed differently.

It just seems unlikely to me that the throttle would have had been 'all the
way in' for taxiing, so it's more probable that it was pushed inwards while
travelling backwards... but that's precisely what I don't understand how
could be possible in the first place.

-Dan

P.S. I normally wonder how to react if seat slid back during the later part
of the takeoff roll... a number of NTSB reports on takeoff stalls due to
seat sliding backwards, with poor results.

That's just a hidden what-if concern, but I'll admit I hadn't quite thought
of it as ordinarily something to be concerned about during taxiing.