I couldn't let this pass without commenting because I just had the experience on July 5th, 2014. My real life experience occurred while cruising along enroute and at a location just 13 nm from the destination airport. My favorite lady and I were crusing along on a trip to the Lake Country in our Aeronca Chief when the engined failed, sputtered once and then went quiet. After a quick check of aircraft status and one brief attempt at a restart, I advised my special lady passenger that we were going to have to "land'er in a field". To her credit, she exhibited absolutely no panic and even looked out and found a field she thought possible.
Meanwhile, I was concentrating on best glide, confirming my own feeling of where we were at and choosing an acceptable landing site. While in a very comfortable turn to the left so that I got a better look at the local terrain I selected a hayfield and decided on a landing orientation compatible with its' most recent cultivation and my sense of the prevailing wind (although I would probably used that field no matter what the winds were). This was in an area of Southern N.Y. which has a smattering of mountains, forests and farmland so, while not the most vile environment possible, it wasn't anything like simply falling from pattern altitude to your training strip runway ! At this point Attitude and Airspeed became my primary concerns. Lots of altitude was available and since I had now chosen where to go, I was busily slipping off the extra 1000 ft of altitude which was unneeded. As I approached the landing site, a huge powerline array appeared alongside the woods bordering the hayfield and my turn to base became more like 160 than 90 degrees to the hay field but not the real approach path I initially had chosen. Nonetheless, it was beginning to look like a grass field landing without trees and buildings and whatever obstacles. I took note of our touchdown airspeed-37 mph !!! The rest of the landing was not so pretty. although the hayfield had been worked this season, it turned out that my chosen touchdown spot had significant wetspots and the landing gear suffered some considerable damage, there was some minor fabric damage on the underside etc. But as someone else noted, these things can be repaired. Altogether, from the first touchdown spot to the end of our inglorious landing was a total of about
100 ft ! The two of us turned to the other with the same question "Are you OK?" My courageous passenger and I were physically unhurt and the walk to the nearest homestead was not more than 1000 feet. Talk about how it can turn out-the lady of the house not only helped us with telephone contacts but served us Cherry Cheesecake while we shook off our experience and awaited pick up!!!
Now I may not qualify to you as a seasoned veteran pilot, but I have been there and seen the writing on the wall and have this advice. First;have situational awareness-I have a GPS and I love it but when you have just a few moments to make critical decisions common sense will serve you far better; Second;know your airplane and how it responds to powerless flight Third; Have your CFI set up training where you actually make emergency landings, not at 20 'agl but to a stop! and my favorite passenger says "Have your Guardian Angel under your wings".
