Cessna 206 pilot reported safely diverting to an alternate airport after experiencing loss of manifold pressure.
Synopsis
Cessna 206 pilot reported safely diverting to an alternate airport after experiencing loss of manifold pressure.
Narrative
As I was descending to 9;500 feet; my aircraft began experiencing loss of manifold pressure from 27in of manifold to 23in of manifold with no manipulations of the controls. I began to immediately troubleshoot the issue and made the decision to find the nearest airport. I knew that I had a few airports in the vicinity to my 7 o'clock so I immediately turned towards that heading. I immediately called up ZZZ Approach to but I could not get them to respond; so I then switch to ZZZ1 Tower frequency. I proceeded to give ZZZ1 my location; altitude; and distance from the airport (11 miles); and they gave me priority for any runway. Coming from the north I decided to give myself a straight in approach to runway XX. During the descent to the airport I observed the manifold pressure drop and spike from 27in to 23in at least 2 times. As I descended I realized very quickly that I needed to make one descending 360 to lose the appropriate amount of altitude for a safe and stable landing. I was able to successfully land on runway XX with no injury to personal or damage to the aircraft. Once grounded and engine turned off I was met by the responders of the airport and gave them a statement of the incident.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.