Hi there,
I have to disagree with the previous post... While I only have 75
hrs, I've been reading as many NTSB reports and rec.aviation.* posts
for quite some time. If I were in that situation, I hope I would do as
well.
The OP said he had to make it 12 miles - this is 6min going
120mph. I'm guessing (total guess) that he was going = 120mph. I must
say - 6 min of very rough engine (one cylinder blown) would pretty
much freak me out, and I would expect silence at any moment.
As for going off the end of the runway - at least in the fun
browsing state on eBay (pure fun, I promise!) I'm amazed at how many
airplanes have been involved in 'incidents' running off the runway.
Usually there is no excuse other than pilot error - and most of the
time (reported anyway) it involves significant damage to the nosegear,
prop, cowling, possibly engine mount, etc.
In this case, there was no damage, and the OP 'pulled the yoke all
the way back' for good soft-field technique. The combo of this and low
speed is probably what saved the plane from damage.

In summary: Allan - you did everything from training, flew all the
way to the ground, walked away, and (nice job) didn't break anything
in the acft that wasn't already damaged in the engine.

Blue Skies,
Noah


Allen, first off, you did great. I would be pleased if I had done so well.
So don't take this as anything but monday-morning quarterbacking.

I think your story illustrates that you don't want to get so absorbed in a
emergency that you end up having an accident for something unrelated to the
condition that caused the emergency in the first place (in your case, almost
overshooting the runway). This is very common in twin-engine failure
scenarios - the pilot shuts down an engine still making decent power but
running poorly, then botches the approach, overshoots the runway, and
stalls/spins in the single-engine go-around.

The general rule-of-thumb in engine-running-poorly scenarios is to assume
the insurance company owns the airplane at the first sign of trouble, then
fly the airplane using the engine for whatever its got left, to as normal a
landing as possible at the nearest airport with plenty of runway and good
weather.

It is very likely that your engine would have continued to make reasonable
power for many, many minutes after the initial failure, perhaps
indefinitely. (There are lots of reports when folks have been over water,
had an engine drop an exhaust valve, and then flown for hours.) So my
advice would be to continue to fly the engine at whatever power it took (or
would make) to get to the nearest airport with a reasonable runway and good
weather. Then fly a normal approach and land, just as you always do. IOW,
keep things as normal as possible.

- Mark