very well done Sir, Iv'e been a PPL for many years here in NZ and engine failure on take off has always been on my mind, You saved both your lives and that Plane with your expertise and that owner guy should have been thankful for your action, it just showed his true colors, an idiot! thanks for this post as it brings home the importance of being fully aware and alert and not being complacent. best wishes from NZ
When mine happened, I just remember the desperate desire to stand up.😁 I guess it was because all my windows were coated with oil. My brave passenger did an admirable job giving me patches to see through.
Same thing happened to me about 2 months ago flight testing an experimental airplane, a valve seat came loose and started shaking the airplane and would not produce more than 2000 rpm. My first thought after landing was also carb icing.
Especially in Lyc engines, stuck valves are usually a result of the valves cooling to the extent that they cannot scavenge the lead in the fuel and the lead gets built up on the valve stem and the valve guide. Leaning during cruise and descent, helps prevent this. Leaning very aggressively (where engine almost cuts out) during taxi is probably the best way to prevent sticking a valve too. But remember, the plane is still producing power, however shaking a lot, so keep flying it and don’t get slow.
Thanks for relating this experience. Good thing you didn't get affected by spatial disorientation with that 270 into the blackness. That's a very bad time to have a stuck valve, and my guess is that this aircraft had this before, and they didn't fix it correctly. If you ever get "morning sickness" it's probably a stuck valve, and it won't fix itself.
