Skylane 182/RG Turbo Skylane/RG
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 60; Flight Crew Total 354; Flight Crew Type 300
Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue
Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition
Aircraft; Human Factors; Procedure
I was flying a jump plane with jumpers aboard the aircraft. I departed ZZZ airport and climbed to 10;500 MSL. The jumpers exited the plane without incident. I saw both parachutes open and I began returning to land at ZZZ. During my descent to pattern altitude; I noticed a drop of RPMs to around 800 while the power was all the way in. I began to descend at a more rapid rate and was no longer producing thrust. I was around 1500-1800 feet at this time and about 3 to 4 miles north of runway XY. The wind was out of the south around 10 to 15 knots and some gusts reported to 18 knots. With no thrust; a decent headwind; and low altitude; I knew I was not going to make the runway. I chose a field about a mile to the south and executed an off airport emergency landing. I was too low and over trees and was focused on finding a point to set down. I did not have time to run any checklist or try and restart. As I was coming down to pattern altitude; I was just about to run through the pre landing checklist which would have caught the possible issue; but I was unable as I lost power before it was even begun. The field is approximately 1.8 miles directly north of the touchdown zone for runway XY of ZZZ. There were no injuries or damage to the plane or to the property. The owner of the field was notified and he came out and mowed a strip in the grass. The plane was left overnight until some machinery can be brought in tomorrow to try and level the ground and until an A&P can verify the aircraft is airworthy. Once the plane is deemed airworthy and the ground is leveled; the owner plans to fly the plane out and back to the airport. I'm not a mechanic; but I believe the problem might have been fuel starvation. While the plane was on the ground; the fuel selector was noticed to be on the left tank only. This was not the case prior to take off as it was on both tanks. I believe that while one of the skydiving students was getting up to turn around to get ready to jump; he turned the switch inadvertently. During descent; I was making left 360 degree turns to stay close to the airport and I believe the fuel was pulled to the outer part of the left wing and starved the engine. Once landed the left wing showed to have around 10 gallons; while the right had around 15 gallons. Even with being on the left only tank and in a constant coordinated 30 degree bank to the left; I do not believe that to be the only cause and believe there might also be some blockage from the fuel tank to the engine. I have never had a plane die while only selecting one tank over the other or over both.
C182 pilot reported a loss of engine power at low altitude forced an off field landing.