Off Airport Landing

[KVNC]

I had an interesting day today. I was in a school 172 flying with my student in our local practice area doing maneuvers when a loud bang gets my attention immediately followed by violent engine vibration and loss of RPM. I look down at my engine instruments and oil pressure seems constant. The engine however feels as though it's making half power at best surging from 1000-2200 RPM. My immediate thought is the engine is compromised and I need a field. Off my side I see a decent field with some dirt roads in between oriented east into the wind. I head to the field and circle and try to think through my options. I am able to maintain altitude and notify approach of the situation. They clear me direct to the field which is approx 25 miles away. I do another circle and reason I do not feel comfortable flying the plane back over a populated area when unsure about the engines integrity. So I commit to making the precautionary off airport landing which is uneventful with no damage to the a/c. After I inspect the engine cowling I clearly see a bent push rod and oil loss. I wait around for the school mechanics and the fsdo safety inspector who checks the plane quickly then lets the mechanics do their thing. This was my first actual power plant related emergency. Just interesting to me how you get into such a groove of normality with instruction that you start to think that these types of occurances are few and far between but they do happen. I'm just glad it wasn't a total power loss and that my student, the plane, and myself are safe.

 

[bLizZuE]

Good work!

 

[denverpilot]

Well done. I watched someone make a rural road landing near my home earlier this year under similar circumstances, major power loss but engine still turning... fuel pump related problem in the end...

He didn’t fare as well... whacked a road sign and sent the aircraft off the road into a ditch and an unused ranch field. Destroyed the aircraft but he walked away without a scratch.

Strangely, I knew the pilot and hadn’t seen him in over a decade. When I realized who it was and had him turn around and look at me from the cockpit, he exclaimed my name and said he hadn’t seen me in a decade. It was then I knew he hadn’t suffered any head injuries during the wild ride down the barbed wire fence that sheared the gear and a wing off. Hahahahaha.

I was able to joke, “Nice of me to show up at your first crash, huh?” Before telling him he had one hell of a fuel leak and it was probably time to get out if he felt up to it.

 

[MikeD]

Made the decision to make a precautionary and stuck to the decision, not succumbing to the temptation to try and limp away from what was a suitable landing area. Nicely done! Had you attempted to limp home, your options had you been forced into it, likely would've been much fewer.

 

[gotWXdagain]

Runways are optional, but landings are mandatory (yeah, I modified the truism for this situation).

Nice work.

 

[Urp99]

Ouch! Good call on the precautionary landing, glad everything turned out well!

 

[msmspilot]

Good job!

 

[CFI A&P]

Nice work.

I had thing same happen on my first solo cross country. The bang and vibration occurred when I reduced power to join the downwind, just continued to land as originally planned.

Somewhere out there someone wrote a piece about the statistics of engine failures and I can’t remember if it was Mike Busch or someone else. In that article they came to the conclusion that partial power loss is more common than total engine failure and swallowing a valve is usually the reason. Which sounds like what happened to you.

 

[tomokc]

Good decision and execution. It’s always a tough call when the engine is developing SOME power.

 

[fast89pony]

Nice!

 

[fholbert]

Nice job, saw this online yesterday right after it happened.

How are they getting the plane back to the airport?

 

[BigZ]

Good job!

 

[bimmerphile]

Great job! Glad you all and the airplane are unscathed

 

[ahw01]

Yeh, did they let,you fly it out?

 

[Springer]

Well done! Hard to resist flying back to your airport but you made the right decision. Congrats. For those of us that still fly GA alternate landing sites are always in the back of our mind. How much time was on the engine?

 

[KVNC]

How are they getting the plane back to the airport?

Yeh, did they let,you fly it out?

Last I heard is they replaced the push rod in the field and the vibrations were still there. I believe the plan now is to pull the wings and trailer it home. I'll find out more when I speak with the mechanics today. Thanks for the responses, it was hard to resist the notion of returning home but like @MikeD said, the idea of losing it totally soon after was far worse in my mind. I had an option to land safety and end the situation immediately, which in retrospect I'm glad I did.

 

[MikeD]

Last I heard is they replaced the push rod in the field and the vibrations were still there. I believe the plan now is to pull the wings and trailer it home. I'll find out more when I speak with the mechanics today. Thanks for the responses, it was hard to resist the notion of returning home but like @MikeD said, the idea of losing it totally soon after was far worse in my mind. I had an option to land safety and end the situation immediately, which in retrospect I'm glad I did.

In the helicopter world, theres a saying: take every opportunity to safely turn an air emergency into a ground emergency as soon as safely possible. In that, much better to handle something when on terra firma than when airborne, as you are on the ground when you want to be, not when you have no choice but to be. Granted, this is much easier in a helo, but the general idea of it crosses over to airplanes as well, and you made that happen. At worst, had you landed where you did and found it hypothetically be some minor thing that couldve been easily remedied by you, you can then depart again safely (would not have been likely in this particular case, but you get the point). It cost you nothing to make a precautionary landing, but couldve potentially cost you, your student, and potentially people on the ground a very high price, had you not.

 

[coks]

Not being pilot error, does the FSDO take any action in situations like these? Curious about if anything becomes of it

 

[Roger Roger]

Last I heard is they replaced the push rod in the field and the vibrations were still there. I believe the plan now is to pull the wings and trailer it home. I'll find out more when I speak with the mechanics today. Thanks for the responses, it was hard to resist the notion of returning home but like @MikeD said, the idea of losing it totally soon after was far worse in my mind. I had an option to land safety and end the situation immediately, which in retrospect I'm glad I did.

Your mechanic sucks if he thinks just replacing the push rod will do it.

 

[killbilly]

Good job handling the issue. Your student should tip you well for that - and not just for the outcome. Those kinds of lessons are INCREDIBLY valuable, and your student got to experience an emergency first-hand under the guidance of a CFI. If there was ever a teachable moment, that's damn sure one. I say again, good job sir.

Your mechanic sucks if he thinks just replacing the push rod will do it.

Being mechanically inclined but knowing nothing about airplane mechs, what else is in play here?