Had a Cessna 172 throw a rod on me over some farmland in Ohio last fall

I was about 15 minutes out from a grass strip near Wilmington when the oil pressure just dropped to zero. Managed to get it down in a cornfield, but the farmer wasn't too happy we crushed about an acre of his crop. Has anyone else had an engine let go mid-flight, or was I just unlucky with that old Lycoming?

2 comments

2 Comments

ivanlewis6d ago

Man, I've gotta push back a little - that sounds more like pilot error than bad luck with the engine.

taylorb946d ago

I gotta say, "old Lycoming" caught my eye because I've been there with a noisy O-320 that finally quit on me. What worked for me when my engine started sounding rough over some hills in Kentucky was to just keep my hand on the throttle and focus on picking a field early, not trying to stretch the glide. I had a farmer yell at me too, but the sheriff actually calmed him down by pointing out the crop was already harvested anyway. The key thing is you got it down safe, and that Lycoming probably had a good long life before it gave up, so I'd call it more unlucky than anything you did wrong.