PA-32 Cherokee Six/Lance/Saratoga/6X
Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 13; Flight Crew Total 288; Flight Crew Type 31
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Maintenance; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor
Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem
Aircraft; Procedure
This was the first checkout flight for me with an instructor working toward a sign-off allowing me flying club privileges for this aircraft. After taxi to the run up area; we smelled light odor of oil that quickly dissipated. Upon run-up we noted slight roughness on left mag that cleared up after leaning mixture at power for 30 seconds. Departure from ZZZ was normal followed by short flight through the class B airspace to ZZZ1 for some pattern work. After a stop and go; departure was a short field takeoff that was normal until about 900 feet AGL when the instructor reduced power to 25 inches which caused a sudden decrease in power and increased vibration. Since we were approaching traffic pattern altitude and still had some power output from the engine (though greatly reduced) we did not declare an emergency as we were troubleshooting the problem on downwind. Manifold pressure continued to read at or near full power even as we moved the throttle through a wide range of power settings. We kept the aircraft close to the field in anticipation of a possible complete loss of power and were high for our final approach requiring some 'S' turns to lose altitude to get back on glideslope. After touchdown; the engine continued to produce power with a higher than usual throttle setting allowing us to taxi to transient parking where we secured the aircraft. After engine shutdown; moderate smoke came out from the engine cowling. After removal of the top engine cowling we found several problems visible to two non-mechanic pilots - a loose spark plug wire to #1 cylinder; air inlet hose to the throttle body had fallen off; large amounts of motor oil in the bottom cowl and dripping onto the ground; and two cylinder stud/bolts sheared off of #1 cylinder.
Departed after good preflight with Student on a checkout flight in the PA32 Saratoga Aircraft. Flew to ZZZ1 for pattern practice... we arrived OK and did a stop and go on and all was well...We took off on short field takeoff procedure with 25 degrees of flaps and initiated full power and rotated at 65 knots and climbed out after 50 feet at 85 knots and at around 900 feet AGL the engine lost power and the throttle pulled back to 25 inches Manifold pressure (MP) and 2500Rpm...At that point the Manifold pressure gauge indicated 33 inches MP and clearly the throttle was now not functioning... Rpm was erratic and climb power was lost...there was some power and engine was running very rough and we managed to maintain 900 feet AGL and crept around the traffic pattern... luckily we managed a short approach back to 29R and the landing was successful... No emergency was declared as we were number one to land with altitude which would allow a one-time approach and landing...On landing we removed the engine cowling and found oil widespread and dripping from the engine and smoke was coming from the hot engine with the oil burning...Our first indication of a problem was that the spark plug on number one cylinder was loose and hanging on its wire... clearly a maintenance issue and on further examination we found the throttle body hose was disconnected and hanging loose... Also two bolts from cylinder one were broken off and laying at the bottom of the cowling... We were extremely lucky to get back on the ground and if the engine had failed at a time other than when it did; we would probably have crashed...We have pictures and videos of the broken items and missing spark plug wire for our records... I believe our actions at time of the emergency were adequate and good judgment was exercised by both pilot and instructor and my opinion is that the incident happened as a result of faulty maintenance...
PA-32 instructor and student pilot reported engine problems during their training flight. After landing they found several serious mechanical discrepancies; leading the instructor to state he felt improper maintenance was a factor.