I departed Fayetteville, AR (FYV) with one passenger en route to Booneville, AR (4M2) in N8528X, a Cessna Powermatic 172. The P172 has a geared engine, constant speed prop. At about 6:38 p.m. at an altitude of 3500 feet, I was released from Razorback Approach flight following. I switched to 122.8 Mhz the Booneville Unicom frequency and changed my transponder code to 1200. I made a scan of the engine instruments, verifying that all were in the green. At approximately 6:39 p.m. I made a 10-mile out call to Booneville Traffic to announce that I was inbound from the north for landing.

At approximately 6:40 p. m., the engine started running rough. I checked the throttle and propeller settings to confirm they had not moved. They had not. The engine started shaking violently and making a banging sound. The propeller started to shake as well. I figured if I let the engine run any longer it would just cause further damage. I pulled the mixture to full lean in order to shut the engine down, the propeller continued to windmill while the engine continued to shake violently and making the banging sounds. I turned off the mags, thinking this would help stop the engine sooner. All of this happened in a matter of seconds, as I began to look to see if we could make it to 4M2. The propeller finally came to a jolting stop after approximately one minute of continuous vibration.

At this time, I realized I could not make it to Booneville. My passenger and I began to scan the area for a good place to land. After setting the plane up for a speed of around 80 mph, I realized we had a few minutes of glide, so I tried to pick a field that seemed better than the others, having plenty of open fields from which to choose. I decided on a field that had just been cut for hay, having round bales of hay lining the sides of the field with about a 60 foot wide strip completely open right down the center of the field. We glided to the north of the field and flew parallel with it making a downwind leg to the field. I made one continued turn from the downwind leg onto final. I realized that I was too high to make land safely. At that time I pulled one notch of flaps. Still being high, I added another notch of flaps. Still too high, I put the plane in a slip using full right rudder with enough left aileron to keep the wings in a semi-level position. By doing that, I lost enough altitude, straightened the plane out of the slip, and prepared to touch down. I realized we were headed straight towards an approximately five to eight foot tall mound. Knowing this would take the gear off the plane and cause further damage to the plane, I was able to pull the plane up enough to clear the mound and touch down just past it. I had used up more of the field than I had planned and a fence and road were approaching fast, I applied full brakes. The plane started to skid at which time I released enough brake pressure to get the plane out of the skid.

I realized I was going to be able to stop the plane before the fence so I released the brakes and started a taxiing turn towards what I figured was the house of the owner of the field. The plane came to a stop, at which time my passenger and I said a little prayer thanking God for a safe landing. We exited the plane to survey the engine damage noting the engine case had several large pieces missing. The cowling had a few holes in it. The lower part of the cowling and the belly was covered in oil. I made a few phone calls and finally got home around 10:00 p.m., finished writing this at around 10:30 p.m. and I am ready for bed, having had a rough day at the office.