Jones14

Took a friend out for a long VFR cross-country today. The 2 hour ride down was nice. Stopped in at the Bowling Green, KY FBO, fueled up the 150, and headed back. It was a 159nm ride home and all was good, for awhile.

We were about 1.5 into the return flight, and I thought I would take him through some maneuvers to ease the boredom. We mess around doing steep turns and the like, then eventually start back on course. We're flying along straight and level leaned for cruise. Then I notice the RPM fluctuates a bit, about a 50-100 RPM drop, then a bit of a rise. Hmm... adjust power/mixture, cycle carb heat, oil pressure/temps ok? Seems to be running fine otherwise, mental note taken and skewing my heading towards the nearest airport along the route.

Another 5 minutes along, it becomes more irratic gaining 100 RPM, then dropping off 200 RPM. Ok, this isn't normal. I'm heading for the nearest field. Get it on the ground, do the run up and the left mag is dead. I'm 30 miles from my home field on a Sunday afternoon and the FBO is closed. Do I limp it home on one mag, or call up my instructor to see if he wants to come save us an hour away (by vehicle)... on his only day off of the week?

Needless to say, I'm home... the aircraft is not. AAAND I left my cell phone in the plane. Damn.

Was I too cautious? What would you have done?

pete2800

You were not too cautious at all. A mag failure is an emergency, especially in a 150/152. I had a mag failure in a 152, only about two seconds after my student had initiated a go-around. Once you've tried to make it over the trees at the end of a short runway, on one mag, while trying to accelerate and pull flaps up... you'll have little patience for mag failures. We cleared the trees by 15-20 feet.

For me, a mag failure is a diversion to the nearest suitable airport.

Singlecoil

You made two good decisions: to land and evaluate the the problem, and to leave it on the ground once you discovered the problem. I once worked for a company that was buying reconditioned mags that were later discovered to be prone to failure. I had 3 mag failures in about a year, one of which seized and started sending metal through the engine.
For all you know the other mag might fail as well. Knowingly taking off with one mag and having it fail is entirely your fault.

plasticpi

This is a perfect example of the temptations of get-home-itis, and luckily you made the right decision. This one's not even a gray area in my book, a broken mag is a no-go item. Period.

I'm sure your instructor was thrilled that you called him rather than flying an airplane that was not airworthy.

dustrpilot

You did good!

grecoaj

You're here to write about it. You made the right choice!

Gajre539

You did well.

Jones14

They ended up coming to get us in a 172RG. We were home in an hour so it all turned out okay.

N9373M

One question I ask myself during a go/no go quandary is:

How will this look in the FAA accident report? The local newspaper? On APC

Jones14

Lol true...