Narrative:

I would like to report two different incidents involving the same aircraft that both resulted in emergency landings within just over two weeks of each other. Both times I was the pilot flying. I am a private pilot with my instrument rating. I received my instrument rating and began working on my commercial rating.background info: the piper arrow that my flight school rents out had a gear up landing last fall that kept it grounded and in maintenance until [late] this year. I flew the arrow for the first time with my primary instructor (with over 5800 hours total time). That flight lasted for 1.7 hours and a majority of the flight was spent with the intention of learning how to fly a complex airplane. That flight we noticed that the throttle felt very tight and that there was a lot of resistance when we tried to move it. We had been told that the engine was brand new and assumed that it would loosen over time.first event: my instructor and I were scheduled to fly the arrow and decided to head south to begin practicing some of the maneuvers associated with the commercial rating. We started off with a steep spiral that he wanted me to attempt a landing from. Upon rolling out from the maneuver; we determined that we were higher than we would like to be and decided to go around to re-attempt the maneuver. We aborted our descent at about 700 feet AGL and I began to climb again. At approximately 1;000 feet AGL I went to reduce the throttle/manifold pressure to 25' and reduce the RPM to 2500 when I noticed that we were not climbing very well and that that manifold pressure gauge was indicating something between 15' and 20' (I don't remember the specific number). We decided that it would be best to level off and land the plane to figure out what was wrong on the ground. We reached mid-field in the downwind and were above 150 mph; which was too fast to drop either the gear or flaps. I went to reduce power to begin slowing the aircraft down and continued to pull back until we received the warning for being at idle with the landing gear in the 'up' position; however there had been no change in our airspeed. After noticing this I pushed the throttle all the way to full and again we had no change in our airspeed. At this point we realized that we had no control over our airspeed. [The instructor] and I decided to call approach. We then began to climb at 100 feet/min to try and gain as much altitude as possible while circling the field to see if we could correct the problem. After circling one or two times; we determined that we would not be able to fix the problem and that we were going to have to pull the fuel mixture back to engine cut off; and do a power off landing. The winds were 15 knots at approximately 310 degrees. ZZZ has a 4;000 foot runway; however we knew we were going to be making a very fast approach for this aircraft and decided to request a landing at ZZZ1 to use one of their 10;000 foot runways. We were cleared direct and made it to the field safely pulling the mixture back just before the threshold and later discovered that the throttle cable had snapped. We were fortunate that the power had allowed us to maintain altitude and fly to an airport with more favorable runways; however if it had snapped at a lower power setting it could have easily been a different story.second event: I was flying with another instructor; while my instructor was on vacation. I had flown with him a few times before this and he signed off on my complex endorsement with 10.3 hours in the arrow. This day was marginal VFR but forecasted to clear. My instructor and I decided that we would start with flying the pattern and working on the various takeoffs and landings for the commercial rating and then go work on the commercial maneuvers once the ceiling permitted. We had done three takeoffs and landings prior to the incident and were on our fourth takeoff after doing a touch n' go; when at about 600 feet AGL there was a sudden lull in the aircraft before shooting forward; like someone had attached a rocket to the plane. I looked down and saw that were had 3000+ RPM and I told my instructor who said that our prop had run away. He started taking corrective action for that while I continued flying the plane. I asked him if we needed to land on the departure end of the runway we had just taken off from; but he said no; just land the plane and we'll deal with it on the ground. We began our turn downwind and were at a lower power setting because of the prop when [my instructor] noticed that we had absolutely no oil pressure. At this point he said we needed to land immediately and shut everything down. What was initially a runaway prop turned into a very real power off 180 flown in a very tight landing pattern. Once on the ground we got out of the plane and noticed that the entire right side was covered in oil. I told the mechanics that we had probably flown the plane for at least two to three minutes without any oil; if not longer. It was later discovered that one of the nuts/connectors for the oil line to the prop governor had sheared and the tube came out releasing all of our oil. Again we were very fortunate with this emergency and that it happened in such close proximity to an airport; because if it had been a nice day and we could have started with other maneuvers; we probably would have wound up in a cornfield at the very least. This second event concerns me not only because we were close to losing the engine; but also because it happened so soon to my first emergency. I spoke with the maintenance people for the flight school and they suspect that these problems are stemming from the work that was done to the engine after the gear up landing. The work after that was done by different mechanics at another airport. The mechanics for my flight school said that they would like to ground the plane for a while so they could take a more in depth look at the engine to see if there is anything else that was done incorrectly that could also lead to a potential accident; however the owner of the flight school is more focused on the business/money and less on safety and wanted the airplane returned to service as quick as possible. I believe that the aircraft was returned to the line and available to renters [two days later]. The mechanics were also concerned with the amount of time the engine ran without oil and the damage that may have caused the engine; as well as being redlined when the prop ran away.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: PA28 pilot reported two separate incidents in the same aircraft that resulted in power off landings.

Narrative: I would like to report two different incidents involving the same aircraft that both resulted in emergency landings within just over two weeks of each other. Both times I was the pilot flying. I am a private pilot with my instrument rating. I received my instrument rating and began working on my commercial rating.Background Info: The piper Arrow that my flight school rents out had a gear up landing last fall that kept it grounded and in Maintenance until [late] this year. I flew the Arrow for the first time with my primary instructor (with over 5800 hours total time). That flight lasted for 1.7 hours and a majority of the flight was spent with the intention of learning how to fly a complex airplane. That flight we noticed that the throttle felt very tight and that there was a lot of resistance when we tried to move it. We had been told that the engine was brand new and assumed that it would loosen over time.First Event: My instructor and I were scheduled to fly the Arrow and decided to head south to begin practicing some of the maneuvers associated with the commercial rating. We started off with a steep spiral that he wanted me to attempt a landing from. Upon rolling out from the maneuver; we determined that we were higher than we would like to be and decided to go around to re-attempt the maneuver. We aborted our descent at about 700 feet AGL and I began to climb again. At approximately 1;000 feet AGL I went to reduce the throttle/manifold pressure to 25' and reduce the RPM to 2500 when I noticed that we were not climbing very well and that that Manifold Pressure gauge was indicating something between 15' and 20' (I don't remember the specific number). We decided that it would be best to level off and land the plane to figure out what was wrong on the ground. We reached mid-field in the downwind and were above 150 mph; which was too fast to drop either the gear or flaps. I went to reduce power to begin slowing the aircraft down and continued to pull back until we received the warning for being at idle with the landing gear in the 'up' position; however there had been no change in our airspeed. After noticing this I pushed the throttle all the way to full and again we had no change in our airspeed. At this point we realized that we had no control over our airspeed. [The instructor] and I decided to call Approach. We then began to climb at 100 feet/min to try and gain as much altitude as possible while circling the field to see if we could correct the problem. After circling one or two times; we determined that we would not be able to fix the problem and that we were going to have to pull the fuel mixture back to engine cut off; and do a power off landing. The winds were 15 knots at approximately 310 degrees. ZZZ has a 4;000 foot runway; however we knew we were going to be making a very fast approach for this aircraft and decided to request a landing at ZZZ1 to use one of their 10;000 foot runways. We were cleared direct and made it to the field safely pulling the mixture back just before the threshold and later discovered that the throttle cable had snapped. We were fortunate that the power had allowed us to maintain altitude and fly to an airport with more favorable runways; however if it had snapped at a lower power setting it could have easily been a different story.Second Event: I was flying with another instructor; while my instructor was on vacation. I had flown with him a few times before this and he signed off on my complex endorsement with 10.3 hours in the Arrow. This day was marginal VFR but forecasted to clear. My instructor and I decided that we would start with flying the pattern and working on the various takeoffs and landings for the commercial rating and then go work on the commercial maneuvers once the ceiling permitted. We had done three takeoffs and landings prior to the incident and were on our fourth takeoff after doing a touch n' go; when at about 600 feet AGL there was a sudden lull in the aircraft before shooting forward; like someone had attached a rocket to the plane. I looked down and saw that were had 3000+ RPM and I told my instructor who said that our prop had run away. He started taking corrective action for that while I continued flying the plane. I asked him if we needed to land on the departure end of the runway we had just taken off from; but he said no; just land the plane and we'll deal with it on the ground. We began our turn downwind and were at a lower power setting because of the prop when [my instructor] noticed that we had absolutely no oil pressure. At this point he said we needed to land immediately and shut everything down. What was initially a runaway prop turned into a very real power off 180 flown in a very tight landing pattern. Once on the ground we got out of the plane and noticed that the entire right side was covered in oil. I told the mechanics that we had probably flown the plane for at least two to three minutes without any oil; if not longer. It was later discovered that one of the nuts/connectors for the oil line to the prop governor had sheared and the tube came out releasing all of our oil. Again we were very fortunate with this emergency and that it happened in such close proximity to an airport; because if it had been a nice day and we could have started with other maneuvers; we probably would have wound up in a cornfield at the very least. This second event concerns me not only because we were close to losing the engine; but also because it happened so soon to my first emergency. I spoke with the maintenance people for the flight school and they suspect that these problems are stemming from the work that was done to the engine after the gear up landing. The work after that was done by different mechanics at another airport. The mechanics for my flight school said that they would like to ground the plane for a while so they could take a more in depth look at the engine to see if there is anything else that was done incorrectly that could also lead to a potential accident; however the owner of the flight school is more focused on the business/money and less on safety and wanted the airplane returned to service as quick as possible. I believe that the aircraft was returned to the line and available to renters [two days later]. The mechanics were also concerned with the amount of time the engine ran without oil and the damage that may have caused the engine; as well as being redlined when the prop ran away.

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.