I had a pretty freaky event happen about a month ago while attempting to land at J.C. It was my first time into J.C. and I had been briefed on the approaches and the tendency to be high. I of course did the new pilot thing and came in a bit high landing to the south. I attempted a forward slip into the airstrip with my 182 and realized that I was not going to make it down in time, so I decided to abort my landing attempt and go around. I applied full power and began to retract the flaps. Approximately 5 seconds after adding power back in, I heard a very loud bang which was followed by a violent shutter. I had my wife and 2 year old child on board with all of our camping gear. The engine stopped producing enough power to sustain altitude. I was approximately 300 feet AGL. I over flew the house and made an immediate tear drop back in using as much of my airspeed an altitude I had to make the turn. I began descending fast in the turn and realized I was getting slow. I was fortunately able to get back to the runway and land without a problem. The engine was still running and got me parked. I then took the cowling off and found the #4 cylinder top had blown off. Very freaky incident!
It was said at J.C. that day that I was the most "lucky, unlucky guy" up there. I would urge everyone to experiment at altitude with steep turns and pay attention to your altimeter. Pay attention to how slow you can be and what point you can execute a steep turn to turn back 180 degrees. This fortunately saved my life and the life of others on board as the plane was obviously not going to climb any longer and there was nowhere else to land. Be cautious of the stall and an spin. Learn of what your planes capabilities are, and I of course am very supportive and sold on a STOL kit! I think this was a HUGE factor in allowing me to get slow and continue to sustain lift and assist me in my turn.
I have attached a pic of the engine cylinder and the damage to my exhaust manifold.
Be careful out there my friends! Fly safe and have fun!
