PA28 instructor reported engine lost power and was unable to maintain altitude during a training fli...

Narrative:

Briefly we were three on board; a flight instructor and 2 private pilots on a piper cherokee. We were cruising at 2;000ft MSL over the shore line. We experienced a sudden power loss. As I applied more power settings I realized that the engine was not responding to the throttle lever at all. We were descending about 200ft/min on the vsi gauge which means 300ft/min rate of descent as we did a cockpit instrument checklist before taking off and we've noted the vsi reading 100ft/min above.with engine running at a constant rate of 1;200 RPM. I maintained the best glide speed possible; while trying to figure out the cause of the problem. I made a decision to land the airplane somewhere on the shoreline sand. While we were gliding; we followed the emergency check list including the complete power loss procedure with no success. We were partially successful using electric fuel pump by turning it on and off causing an initial increase in the RPM and successively decrease in the descent rate to 100ft/min on gauge. The electric fuel pump was able to increase the RPM for few seconds which led me to constantly switch it on and off to minimize the loss of altitude as much as possible. Eventually I felt comfortable to turn back after the option was offered by approach. At about 300ft over the runway; I leaned the mixture all the way down; secured the engine and we finally were able to land safely on the runway.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: PA28 Instructor reported engine lost power and was unable to maintain altitude during a training flight.

Narrative: Briefly we were three on board; a flight instructor and 2 private pilots on a Piper Cherokee. We were cruising at 2;000ft MSL over the shore line. We experienced a sudden power loss. As I applied more power settings I realized that the engine was not responding to the throttle lever at all. We were descending about 200ft/min on the VSI gauge which means 300ft/min rate of descent as we did a cockpit instrument checklist before taking off and we've noted the VSI reading 100ft/min above.With engine running at a constant rate of 1;200 RPM. I maintained the best glide speed possible; while trying to figure out the cause of the problem. I made a decision to land the airplane somewhere on the shoreline sand. While we were gliding; we followed the emergency check list including the complete power loss procedure with no success. We were partially successful using electric fuel pump by turning it on and off causing an initial increase in the RPM and successively decrease in the descent rate to 100ft/min on gauge. The electric fuel pump was able to increase the RPM for few seconds which led me to constantly switch it on and off to minimize the loss of altitude as much as possible. Eventually I felt comfortable to turn back after the option was offered by Approach. At About 300ft over the runway; I leaned the mixture all the way down; Secured the engine and we finally were able to land safely on the runway.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1590525
Time
Date	201810
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.TRACON
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	PA-28 Cherokee/Archer/Dakota/Pillan/Warrior
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	Other Shoreline
Flight Plan	None
Component
Aircraft Component	Engine
Person 1
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 30 Flight Crew Total 360 Flight Crew Type 2
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

PA28 instructor reported engine lost power and was unable to maintain altitude during a training flight.