Narrative:

I was contacted by a 79 year old gentleman who asked me to fly in his airplane with him. He said he was unable to fly alone due to a heart murmur and recent loss of medical. He said he had a newly overhauled engine and prop on a turbocharged 6 cylinder piper arrow iv and needed to put some time on the engine and fly it. I agreed and told him that I have several hundred hours in my dad's piper arrow iv. We met on the sunday afternoon and I looked at the airworthiness and registration and verified the poh was in the airplane. We both did a proper preflight of the aircraft and then took off. We went to a nearby airport where we did one touch and go before returning to the home airport. He flew the entire trip and I did the radios for him. It was a beautiful day outside with blue clear skies and 85 degree temperatures. The only negative information that was relayed in the weather briefers conversation to me was that there would be moderate turbulence below 8;000 feet. Neither one of us filed a flight plan and instead I requested flight following for the entire trip and was talking to approach and center for the entire time. As we were getting close to our destination; approach handed us off and told us to contact tower and to expect the visual into runway 26. As I dialed in the numbers on the radio; the engine began to sputter and cough and would not produce power. I checked in with the tower and told them we might not make the airport. We immediately pitched for best glide speed of 97 knots and completed the emergency checklist for loss of power in flight. When none of those items resolved the problem or helped; we aimed for the best field I could see. As we got closer to the field; I saw a section of the road where there was no power lines or telephone poles; as well as no traffic; and instead chose to land on a highway. At this point in time; I took the controls of the aircraft from the owner following a verbal confirmation and landed the airplane myself on the road. There was no damage done to the airplane and no damage done to any public or personal property and the emergency landing was textbook perfect. We still are not sure why the engine malfunctioned or stopped producing power. Additionally; after this emergency landing; I then recently have found out from the owner that he was mistaken about his aircraft being in annual and he somehow 'forgot' that he didn't get the annual accomplished in time this year. I was never provided logs and was told that it was fine before flying. Huge lesson learned.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A PA-28 owner without a medical asked an instructor to fly with him to add hours to his newly overhauled engine. The engine quit for unknown reasons but a safe off airport landing followed. The PIC instructor did not know that the annual had not been completed until the FAA inspected the aircraft.

Narrative: I was contacted by a 79 year old gentleman who asked me to fly in his airplane with him. He said he was unable to fly alone due to a heart murmur and recent loss of medical. He said he had a newly overhauled engine and prop on a turbocharged 6 cylinder piper arrow IV and needed to put some time on the engine and fly it. I agreed and told him that I have several hundred hours in my dad's piper arrow IV. We met on the Sunday afternoon and I looked at the airworthiness and registration and verified the POH was in the airplane. We both did a proper preflight of the aircraft and then took off. We went to a nearby airport where we did one touch and go before returning to the home airport. He flew the entire trip and I did the radios for him. It was a beautiful day outside with blue clear skies and 85 degree temperatures. The only negative information that was relayed in the weather briefers conversation to me was that there would be moderate turbulence below 8;000 feet. Neither one of us filed a flight plan and instead I requested flight following for the entire trip and was talking to Approach and Center for the entire time. As we were getting close to our destination; Approach handed us off and told us to contact Tower and to expect the visual into Runway 26. As I dialed in the numbers on the radio; the engine began to sputter and cough and would not produce power. I checked in with the Tower and told them we might not make the airport. We immediately pitched for best glide speed of 97 knots and completed the emergency checklist for loss of power in flight. When none of those items resolved the problem or helped; we aimed for the best field I could see. As we got closer to the field; I saw a section of the road where there was no power lines or telephone poles; as well as no traffic; and instead chose to land on a Highway. At this point in time; I took the controls of the aircraft from the owner following a verbal confirmation and landed the airplane myself on the road. There was no damage done to the airplane and no damage done to any public or personal property and the emergency landing was textbook perfect. We still are not sure why the engine malfunctioned or stopped producing power. Additionally; after this emergency landing; I then recently have found out from the owner that he was mistaken about his aircraft being in annual and he somehow 'forgot' that he didn't get the annual accomplished in time this year. I was never provided logs and was told that it was fine before flying. Huge lesson learned.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.