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Cessna 170B engine failure due to a broken piston ring - 1989

This video is different from the usual



August 5, 1989 I had an engine failure in my Cessna 170B (N170JA) just as I was entering Mystic Pass, in the Alaska Range. My front seat passenger (author Randy Alcorn) was taking video — and he continued to film until just above the ground when I yelled “it’s gonna be rough.” He wisely decided to stop filming and hang on but, unfortunately, we didn’t get the landing on video. It wasn’t anything spectacular, just a “hard landing.” As for what happened to the airplane, before leaving on the chopper I walked off 900 usable feet of gravel bar. A friend who was also an excellent bush pilot and an A&P (died 2016) flew in a borrowed engine in his Cessna 206U, landing next to my airplane. Using a spruce-legged tripod made from local trees, he swapped out engines right there on the gravel bar. Only took him four hours. We flew my airplane to the A & P’s hangar where he put together a “new” engine for me. I sold the airplane in 1992 and it’s now near Talkeetna, AK.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

The most amazing thing there is somebody loaned him an engine. That was pretty decent and probably wouldn’t happen in this part of the world. I guess it’s more a question of survival up there. People go that extra mile because the stakes are much higher. They all have more skin in the game.

Buying, Selling, Flying
EISG, Ireland

Good job by that pilot!

always learning
LO__, Austria

It’s pretty common to be among a group of fellow aviators who support each other. Just a few weeks back, I made the last of five flights to help out a fellow owner (whom I do not know), because a mutual friend asked me too. No charge, ‘just did it. If I’d had something to lend to get the plane out of the bush, I’d have lent it. It would have been returned, or replaced. It’s like a code of honour. I have been helped when I had a problem away.

For the amount of oil down the cowl, I’m thinking more than a broken piston ring, but okay! That engine certainly was not going to power than plane out of there!

The good forced landing was evidence of a pilot who plans ahead well. He kept himself with suitable landing places within gliding distance, and maintained his skill to execute a forced approach. For my skill maintenance, nearly all of my landings at home will be power off from downwind, just for the practice. I occasionally fly a prop stopped forced approach, but usually onto a larger runway, as I self insure my planes – I’m not trying to create needless risk for myself! in 42 years of flying, I’ve had four engine failures which resulted in a forced landing. Mostly resulting from luck, I’ve never damaged a plane doing it, and always flown out later.

When I check out a pilot on type (singles), I will not release them as checked out, until they have demonstrated several smooth forced landings. I have done this right up to checking our two pilots in a Cessna Grand Caravan (which lands power off very nicely!). I consider this an important skill, which is overlooked. Obviously the pilot of the 170 maintains this skill well, and it made his day much better than it could have been! Well done!

Home runway, in central Ontario, Canada, Canada

Yes I too wondered about how a broken ring could do that…

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
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