This is an excerpt from a report made to the Aviation Safety Reporting System. The narrative is written by the pilot, rather than FAA or NTSB officials. To maintain anonymity, many details, such as aircraft model or airport, are often scrubbed from the reports.
Prior to this event a student and I had been practicing normal takeoffs and landings with no indication of performance reduction from the engine.
We completed four takeoffs and landings to full stops, followed by us taxiing back to the hold short line of the active runway.
On the fifth departure we were climbing at Vy (85 mph) up to around 950 feet MSL, read on the altimeter. Prior to turning crosswind we had a 50% rpm loss.
From this point forward I, the flight instructor, took the flight controls and started performing a left turn at best glide (83 mph) back for the opposing runway.
In the bank we descended about 300 feet while maintaining 83 mph. There was violent vibrations inside the cabin with occasional clouds of smoke rising over the windshield.
When the 180° turn was completed, we were established on final roughly around 600 feet MSL in a clean configuration. I descended for the runway and once in ground effect I brought 30° of flaps down to increase drag.
We touched down about 3,000 feet down the 6,000 foot runway and exited on the taxiway.
At this point I shut all the electronics off and pulled the mixture, mags off, and turned the master off and exited the aircraft with my student.
During the entire event we were able to hold roughly around 1,200 rpms.
After investigating and speaking with the mechanics they came to the conclusion that the cylinder had split in half causing the dramatic loss of power.
Everyone onboard exited the aircraft with no injuries.
Primary Problem: Aircraft
ACN: 1910966
A successful 180. A key point is the pilot keeping the nose down and maintaining best glide speed. Losing only 300ft in the turn indicates he was quite proficient. I most likely would have landed no flaps. There are some trade-offs, but generally if coming into the flare with excess speed, lowering the flaps will delay the touchdown quite a bit because lowering the flaps then requires a much lower pitch (too low for landing) to avoid ballooning.
Or best glide was not optimal because he lost 3000 ft. of runway and flared to fast…or???
Whatever he did worked.
He did everything right, but at 600 ft over the runway, a slip would have gotten him lower more quickly, and would have gotten him on the runway with more of it ahead.
It’s a good thing that the runway was 6,000 ft, and not 3,000 -3,500…
He would have run off the end of a much shorter runway.!
Actually he may have not made it back to a much shorter runway. Where he was flaring was probably his max gliding range. So many factors.