SR20 flight instructor and student on a training flight reported an engine power loss in flight. The flight crew diverted to a safe landing.
Synopsis
SR20 flight instructor and student on a training flight reported an engine power loss in flight. The flight crew diverted to a safe landing.
Narrative
We were flying Aircraft X for a practice flight for Cirrus standardization. I was instructing a newly certified CFII. After conducting a steep spiral into a simulated engine out maneuver; our engine started running extremely rough. It did this on our go around from the simulated engine out. We were approximately 500 AGL when we went around. As the senior instructor; I took controls and assessed. I remember seeing 88% power on our manifold pressure but do not remember at what point we showed 88%. Either way; we were full power; with extreme vibrations; at approximately Vy on the airspeed indicator and barely climbing. We ran our immediate action items for engine loss but nothing changed. We pulled up engine partial power loss from the POH and ran the checklist; but to no avail. We originally agreed to go straight to ZZZ1 but after checking the nearest page on the PFD we went direct ZZZ. It was 3 miles closer; gave us a tailwind; and did not take us directly over town. I feared we may lose the engine over Location X and endanger everyone in town. In fact; I did not think the engine was going to make it to any airport but kept it at Vy to climb as much as possible to give us the greatest odds. It was at this time that I [requested priority handling] with ZZZ Center. I squawked XXXX and kept my eyes peeled for fields to pull over. Shortly after this; I checked and realized we had no CHT or EGT readings coming from cylinder three and realized we had lost a cylinder. Thankfully the engine did make it ZZZ Airport and we landed safely. When I applied power to taxi off the runway the engine was dead and we rolled to a stop. I called ZZZ Center and let them know that we made it safely on the ground at ZZZ Airport and thanked them for their help. Then the airport manager came and towed us to the maintenance facility on the airport. They immediately started looking into it and discovered that we had a bent pushrod on cylinder three; as well as a nut sitting freely in the cylinder. I believe they discovered cracks on the engine mounts as well. Not sure about other findings; if any; but remember seeing and hearing these. This whole thing lasted approximately 9 minutes from the go around to the landing. I thought about a lot in those 9 minutes but am thankful to have made it safely. The suspected problem is shock cooling of the engine. We were at an idle power setting through the steep spiral and simulated engine out; only clearing the engine once per turn in the steep spiral. Even though we do this daily at our flight school; I do not believe I will ever do these maneuvers back to back now to prevent this from happening to me again. May or may not have caused it but will still not do this in the future.
Second reporter narrative
During a CFII practice standardization flight; we were meant to practice commercial maneuvers in the Cirrus SR-20. We had done a takeoff; power on/off stalls; chandelles; steep turns; and lazy eights. We had completed a steep spiral then a simulated engine failure maneuver. I was flying and recovered from the maneuver by adding 50% power then stopping our descent at 500 ft. AGl and then going full power which is when the engine started running very rough and shaking violently. The other instructor with me then took controls and he noticed before I did that we had lost a cylinder; but after running through immediate action items and trying to figure out what was going on. I noticed cylinder 3 had gone dead. The CHT was around 300 F and the EGT was showing nothing. We debated going back to ZZZ1 or going to the closer ZZZ. We made the decision to go to ZZZ and went directly to that airport. On the way to ZZZ I took out the checklist and ran through the Partial Power Loss checklist and then the instructor flying contacted ZZZ Center on and [requested priority handling]. We split the comms and I talked with our company frequency to let other instructors know what was going on. We made a right base for Runway XX in ZZZ and then were able to land. We were able to pull off the main runway surface but not cross the runway hold short line on Taxiway 1. The engine had died towards the end of our rollout. It was towed to the Maintenance in ZZZ. It appears that we shock cooled the engine from having the power idle too long during the steep spiral and the simulated engine failure. In the future I am not going to do this maneuver combined with students and will separate the maneuver.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.