Rutan varieze pilot reported landing on a paved road after experiencing a partial power loss.

Attributes
ACN	1374849
Time
Date	201607
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Amateur/Home Built/Experimental
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	None
Component
Aircraft Component	Engine
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 210 Flight Crew Total 14000 Flight Crew Type 200
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

Narrative:

[While inflight] I experienced partial power loss and chose to make a precautionary landing on a paved road. My engine abruptly rolled back to low power which I was unable to recover in a timely manner. I turned off course toward my nearest divert but was unsure of my ability to make the field with my power issue. The lower altitude left me little time to assess the cause. Rather than trek the 10 remaining miles over what I deemed unsuitable terrain to my divert; I elected to safely land on [a paved road]. There were no vehicles on the road and; at the time; I deemed this to be the safest course of action. The landing was uneventful with no damage sustained to the aircraft. I parked the aircraft in a local farmer's driveway with their permission and will disassemble and trailer it to my home airport to troubleshoot and repair the issue.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Rutan VariEze pilot reported landing on a paved road after experiencing a partial power loss.

Narrative: [While inflight] I experienced partial power loss and chose to make a precautionary landing on a paved road. My engine abruptly rolled back to low power which I was unable to recover in a timely manner. I turned off course toward my nearest divert but was unsure of my ability to make the field with my power issue. The lower altitude left me little time to assess the cause. Rather than trek the 10 remaining miles over what I deemed unsuitable terrain to my divert; I elected to safely land on [a paved road]. There were no vehicles on the road and; at the time; I deemed this to be the safest course of action. The landing was uneventful with no damage sustained to the aircraft. I parked the aircraft in a local farmer's driveway with their permission and will disassemble and trailer it to my home airport to troubleshoot and repair the issue.

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.