Jeff,
Thanks for sending out the newsletter. I was especially interested in the Safety Corner column; a lot of good information in there. Maybe Bob will consider writing a column about partial engine failures on takeoff. There's a lot of focus on complete loss of power, but sometimes it doesn't all go away; just most of it. It happened to me about a month ago in a Commander 112. (I'm still building my Legacy.)
I was taking off from Independence, OR (7S5) when, at 250 - 300' AGL, there was a loud pop and the engine started coughing and belching, running very rough, and just barely running at that. The short version is it didn't quit completely and I was able to make a teardrop turn back to the runway. I was down to slow flight airspeed (you have practised slow flight turns, right?) but only lost about 50' in the turn. The engine continued to pop and belch but it didn't quit. There are a lot of farm fields around 7S5 and I was prepared to put it in one of them if things got worse. Luckily I didn't have to, and part of that luck was being solo with just under a half tank of fuel.
After landing, and prying myself from the seat cushion, I removed the top cowl and was surprised to see -- nothing wrong. No oil, no broken cylinders, no loose parts. Another pilot, there were a few gathered around by now, noticed the rocker cover of #1 wasn't nearly as warm as the others. Removing the rocker cover and turning the prop through revealed that the exhaust valve on #1 wasn't moving, not even a little. And it was closed. This is the valve closest to the front of a Lycoming IO-360. The engine was removed and taken to an overhaul shop where they found the camshaft had broken into two pieces. The break was between the intake and exhaust valves of cylinder #1. Nothing else was damaged. The cam was installed new about 240 hours ago.
Yes, it can happen to any of us. Keep reading those Safety Corner articles.
Tom Gourley