first off hello, my name is blake. my family has a 1958 175, tricycle gear with the continental. i really enjoy flying as i have only been flying for about 6 months. (i hold a private certificate only)


recently i was coming in to a familiar airport that i frequent and i was about 8 miles out flying 3000 feet MSL (appx 2600 AGL) i had the rpm set at 2900 and was flying smoothly in the cool morning air at about 120mph indicated. suddenly i noticed a signifigant change in the engine sound and looked to find that my rpms had dropped to about 2600 and my speed was dropping..... i immediately checked that my throttle had not somehow moved and upon verifying i began to troubleshoot, while also looking around for a possible landing site. my speed was down to 90-100 while holding this altitude. i pulled carb heat thinking maybe, just maybe i had aquired icing.......i chekced mixture, fuel selector, mags, and primer "lock".....all negative. i came on in and made my landing and once on the ground i did a run-up and found that the LEFT mag was inoperative....gave me a little scare but my question is this....has anyone else experienced this before? how did it go? is mag failure something that happens often?

thanks,


rookie pilot

Its rare but mag failures do happen. One reason aircraft have dual mags.

I haven't had a mag failure, I have had a stuck valve which forced me to limp into a private strip. I probably could have maintained altitude if I needed. I had a two strips within glide (2 strips & I was in the mountains!). Came in and landed, nothing else worth noting. Sounds like you did just what you were trained to do.

Welcome to the 175 club. Let us know what your A&P finds. What kind of mags do you have? Had they ever been upgraded to the slicks?

Blake,

First of all, welcome aboard. Second, great job!!! You followed your training n a tight situation & handled it well. I had a similar sitaution, though fortunately, it happened during runup...one of my mags quit...turned out on ofthe p-leads had grounded out. Mine is 1960 vintage and some of the wiring is old and brittle. My A&P and I are even now going thru and replacing critical wiring that looks like it could fail in flight. Keep us posted on what you and your A&P find out...that's how we all learn. Again, welcome aboard.

Regards,


Me

I lost a mag on takeoff from a short grass strip a few years ago. The airplane just stopped gaining speed so I ground aborted. Airplane was heavy with full fuel and two over-weight pilots but stopping on the runway was no problem. Did another ground runup and confirmed the loss of one mag. Airplane had a Slick mag on one side and a JI Case (which I understand is the same as Slick but older). Airplane came that way when I bought it.

Also had a couple of intermitent sticking valves on the two middle cylinders much later and had a friend do the
"rope trick" to fix that issue. Worked well until I decided to do a top overall anyway.

Jim
N6608E