The one time I suffered an engine failure, it was partial, not total. One cylinder’s intake valve spontaneously disassembled itself—a neat trick for a one-piece component—leaving the other five jugs to continue merrily along, albeit with some major vibration and a distinct power loss. I had plenty of altitude and enough engine power to reach a nearby 9000-foot-long runway after a couple of 360-degree turns to lose altitude. (Pro tip: Keep as much altitude as you can as long as you can until descending for the runway in such a situation.) The airplane was even able to taxi off the runway and to the ramp under its own power. Regardless, we were done flying that day.
Of course, one pilot’s partial power failure is another’s partial failure. In this instance, pieces of the former valve spread throughout the intake system and into a balance tube, and acted as a flapper valve, interfering with the airflow to the cylinders on that side of the engine. It was kind of like the old joke about a car’s turn signal. “Yeah, it’s on; Wait, no it isn’t. Okay, now it’s back on again….”
