Very nice job. You did fantastic. Just from the video, I think i would have tried to put it down on the crossing runway the second the engine sputtered because of the surrounding trees just based on the sound of the engine changing RPMs. But I was not in the cockpit so its hard for me to say that. Excellent job, laugh it off and keep flying!
At 65 +-5 knots and with only 1000' remaining it was an option but he'd have certainly gone off the end and into that field. (I looked at the airport diagram, and you can see the 1000' markers in the video I believe). I can't tell if there's a fence or drainage ditch there but there probably is.
And you can see him running his emergency flow right then, seeing if there was some "simple" reason the O-470 was coughing. He's busy. If it'd been the fuel selector or mixture or carb ice, etc... He'd have found it. He mentioned missing the primer until after landing but it wasn't a factor.
Putting myself in his shoes with a bunch of time in that same aircraft type, I discounted the landing on the remaining crossing runway after watching the video and looking over the (unfamiliar to me) airport. It's not a great option.
If they crossed more near the center, it'd be perfect, but they merge too far south, so unless the engine had completely seized, you're committed on that departure.
You probably have to cross that scrub brush to the south. There's a cutout along the scrub on Google Earth that looks like a power line route but I don't see towers. I can not figure out what that is, but it extends many miles northeast. If there's power lines in that cut, you're also trapped West of them the further South you go.
200' isn't quite high enough to do the partial turn to runway 35 there yet either. Need another 150' if you're in practice, 250' if not, but you can keep your speed 0-10 above the stall in a steep turn without power while adding flaps. Pretty touchy. Nose has to come way down.
I think you're stuck with overflying the scrub (if you can) and into that field, just as we see here in the video, if you're not superman and look at available options for non-wild conservative performance maneuvering.
. I then debated whether to tell my wife and began to scheme ways that we could both hide the incident from our wives. But, being a man of such high morals, I abandoned that plan pretty quick.
