Narrative:

I did a pre-trip inspection on the aircraft and noticed that it was a quart of oil low so I added a quart. I got in the plane and continued to go through the checklist as always to insure a safe flight. I listened to the unicom and decided to leave. I announced to local traffic that I was taxiing and got to where I completed a run up of the aircraft and the results were good so I decided to take off. I flew around the pattern once and landed to relax me a little due to the fact that it had been a week since I had flown. Everything felt great and it was a beautiful day so I decided to fly out towards my house. Once I got to about 1700 ft I departed the pattern to 3000 ft to the southwest. Upon reaching my desired altitude I did my cruise checklist and was satisfied and entered into slow flight in ordered to practice this maneuver. Once I got down to the minimum speed that I felt comfortable I noticed a noise in the motor. I wasn't sure what it was coming from at first but the more that I listened the more I felt like that was where it was coming from. I departed from slow flight while looking at my instruments. I then noticed that the oil pressure had dropped and I decided to abort and try to return to the airport for safety reasons.I was taught that even if your oil pressure drops that it doesn't always mean no oil that it could be a faulty gauge so I watched the oil temp gauge and the temp was at 180 so I turned the airplane around and felt like I was about 8 miles or so away and I decided to get as high as I could. The knocking got louder so I slowed the power down to 2000 rpm. I realized that I was too far away from the airport and the knocking got louder on a lower setting and I realized that if I was going to make it that I needed to be closer. I added full power and picked up speed but realized that even at full power that it wasn't producing full RPM's. About 30 seconds later the plane started to shake and I heard a loud pop and the engine stopped. Smoke had started coming out of the cowing but stopped quickly. I looked on my checklist to see about the emergency procedures to make sure that I didn't forget anything. I unlocked my door and opened my window. Once I realized that I was not going to make the airport I looked around for the best place to land. There was a field to my left but it required a sharp bank to make it and I was worried about that with no power. Ahead of me to the right was a highway. Once I saw that I was going to have to land on the highway I radioed in to 121.5. I tried to explain to them where I thought that I was but I was getting too close to the ground. As I lined up with the road I accessed the traffic and made a decision where to land. Once I touched down I had to coast to where I could be in a safe location out of the way of everything. When I came to a complete stop I radioed back to 121.5 to let them know that I had made it safely and that there was no damage to me; the plane or anyone or anything else. I didn't get a response back so I called my CFI at the airport and told him where I was in order for him to come get me. When he got there he informed me to contact the weather briefer and let him know that everything was ok.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: PA-28 pilot reported landing on a rural highway after experiencing an engine failure.

Narrative: I did a pre-trip inspection on the aircraft and noticed that it was a quart of oil low so I added a quart. I got in the plane and continued to go through the checklist as always to insure a safe flight. I listened to the unicom and decided to leave. I announced to local traffic that I was taxiing and got to where I completed a run up of the aircraft and the results were good so I decided to take off. I flew around the pattern once and landed to relax me a little due to the fact that it had been a week since I had flown. Everything felt great and it was a beautiful day so I decided to fly out towards my house. Once I got to about 1700 ft I departed the pattern to 3000 ft to the Southwest. Upon reaching my desired altitude I did my cruise checklist and was satisfied and entered into Slow Flight in ordered to practice this maneuver. Once I got down to the minimum speed that I felt comfortable I noticed a noise in the motor. I wasn't sure what it was coming from at first but the more that I listened the more I felt like that was where it was coming from. I departed from slow flight while looking at my instruments. I then noticed that the oil pressure had dropped and I decided to abort and try to return to the airport for safety reasons.I was taught that even if your oil pressure drops that it doesn't always mean no oil that it could be a faulty gauge so I watched the oil temp gauge and the temp was at 180 so I turned the airplane around and felt like I was about 8 miles or so away and I decided to get as high as I could. The knocking got louder so I slowed the power down to 2000 rpm. I realized that I was too far away from the airport and the knocking got louder on a lower setting and I realized that if I was going to make it that I needed to be closer. I added full power and picked up speed but realized that even at full power that it wasn't producing full RPM's. About 30 seconds later the plane started to shake and I heard a loud pop and the engine stopped. Smoke had started coming out of the cowing but stopped quickly. I looked on my checklist to see about the emergency procedures to make sure that I didn't forget anything. I unlocked my door and opened my window. Once I realized that I was not going to make the airport I looked around for the best place to land. There was a field to my left but it required a sharp bank to make it and I was worried about that with no power. Ahead of me to the right was a highway. Once I saw that I was going to have to land on the highway I radioed in to 121.5. I tried to explain to them where I thought that I was but I was getting too close to the ground. As I lined up with the road I accessed the traffic and made a decision where to land. Once I touched down I had to coast to where I could be in a safe location out of the way of everything. When I came to a complete stop I radioed back to 121.5 to let them know that I had made it safely and that there was no damage to me; the plane or anyone or anything else. I didn't get a response back so I called my CFI at the airport and told him where I was in order for him to come get me. When he got there he informed me to contact the weather briefer and let him know that everything was ok.

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.