Hat tip to the FlightSchoolList.com for finding and posting this amazing video taken by a passenger in a Cessna 170B that experienced an engine failure back in 1989 while entering Mystic Pass in the Alaska Range. The scenery in the video is amazing but what will have you at the edge of your seat is when the engine quits. However and shortly before making a rough landing, the passenger turned off the camera in order to brace for impact.
No one was injured when the aircraft landed and the pilot did walk off 900 usable feet of gravel bar. Hence, a friend who is also an excellent bush pilot and an A&P flew in a borrowed engine and by using a spruce-legged tripod made from trees, he was able to swap engines right on the gravel bar in just four hours. He then flew the aircraft to the A&P’s hangar where he put together a "new" engine.
Ultimately, the pilot sold the Cessna in 1992 and he believes it’s still flying somewhere up in Alaska.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTiGU5TiYCE&w=480]
Fascinating stuff! I always run through in my mind what it'd be like if this happened when I was out flying. This guy seems to be quite in control and calm about it, and is certainly on the ball in finding that nice gravel bar to land on. Kudos to him.