Relevant thread on red board:http://forums.aopa.org/showthread.php?t=84571A couple of posts from the pilot:Thanks everyone. I was hoping to reinforce my confidence, and after a day of support from the community, I'm not so eager to throw in the towel anymore.
Plus, my insurance has an allocation for rentals while the 182 is offline.
I'll post some pics I took from the field 20 or 30 minutes after putdown. About the time it took me to stop pacing around the field.
I will add a play by play on my thought process at every adjustment in flight. It was automatic at the time, but after watching the clip many times, I am recalling my intent. Some of the major ones was as follows:
*First burp: Level the plane and keep speed. Pulled throttle and considered option one. Try to make pavement.
*Right turn: I didn't think 17/35 was doable, so I banked right to consider the taxiway. I may have been able to dump the flaps and attempt a slip down, but I was dealing with one burp of the engine and wasn't completely convinced of a problem. Maybe water that I could work it through.
*Level off and power away from aerodrome: Well it settled in that I had never heard that from the engine and by that time my option 1 had passed. Unable. I leveled the plane and I added power to see if I could burn myself to good fuel. At this point I knew I had the field out there. It is my home airport.
*Next round of misses: Ran good for a split second, but then started missing again. Note: The video only give sounds. The physical feeling of the loss of thrust and the weight that it adds in your seat is inexplicable.
*Bank left: Once the second round of misfires happened, I decided time to get myself over the pipeline clearing south of runway 17/35. Not too visible on video, but they are wide enough to put a plane down.
*Biggest power loss: As I nursed the engine to a decision point and it gave what I thought was the biggest power dip of the flight. It was time to put it down. I had the field made. I couldn't afford to try to limp the engine any further. There were no other fields past this one.
*Landing was obviously a decent crosswind, but very common in south tx. I don't remember even consciously thinking about wing low, opposite rudder. I'm proud to see I did that automatically. Probably could've pointed more into the wind, but glad I didn't. The caliche road I settled up next to at the end was a winding one and I would've surely hopped over that one and really bungled up the nose gear and a likely prop strike.
and:So far looks like only damage is to the landing gear. Left main and nose pants got shattered. Right looks undamaged, but is covered up by a mean thorn bush. FAA inspector said no visible firewall damage and all the lines look clean. All in all, airframe is good.
No firm cause yet. FAA runup was off and ignition and induction systems are top of the suspect list.
Transport coming Monday to haul out of field. It'll be interesting to see the wings come off.