Dead Stick Douglas

i have since heard from friends that saw it on tv that the reporters corrected the low fuel statement, so grateful to them for that.

I made myself a new handle - "Dead Stick Douglas". i didn't know i had that much skill, so realize that a lot of good luck and the hand of God were very vital to this incident. i'd like to clear up some of the data points floating out there. We topped the tanks off before departing Austin and our range with 75 gal usable is 0530. Flight Aware shows our flight to have been 0230, so 0300 hours left, or enough gas to get to Atlantic Ocean. The fuel in the tanks in the plane tell that story. However, the words "oil" and "fuel" may have sounded similar and therefore the confusion to the reporters. I did email the station and told them that fuel was not low - that would have been bad judgement, which we didn't have - but that oil was lost, which was bad luck, which we did have. at least until we landed safely. I don't know how the reporters declared that three people were in a crash when the fact was that two people were in one of the smoothest landings ever made and no one and nothing was scratched, save a little dent in a gear door that found a little dirt to rub on. A little clarification on the reports of the engine are in order though. Back in the fall, i reported an engine burp of a half second to my mechanic and he had not explanation. the engine ran fine for two months until it went in for its annual inspection, at which time the broken plug and damage to the piston and cylinder was discovered. I had requested that he replace the plugs with Tempest fine wires prior to the annual, but upon learning of the Tempest failure, told him to not use Tempest but instead put twice the price Champions in the plane instead, which he did. So any reference to Tempest plugs is irrelevent relating to this incident. As far as the cause of the engine issue, i have no idea. i didn't know an engine could shake that hard and not break off the mount though, and still wonder how white smoke could come out the front of the cowling when air was entering it at 100K. The engine seized just after coming out of the bottom of the clouds at 2,000' and looking through two prop blades standing still was quite unsettling. Watching the glide slope start coming up off the bottom of the indication told me that i would be sinking down to it and then below it and decided that we couldn't make the runway from 2,000. I saw a small green patch on the ground and dismissed it as too small to land in. Looking all around I didn't see anything else that looked as good, so resigned myself to a very critical approach. The patch measured at 1,000' on Google Earth and 50' trees at each end. I knew I couldn't be high or fast or we'd run into the trees at the other end. we thought we would trim some trees on the approach but didn't and flipped up the speed brakes and landed, rolling pretty fast toward the trees at the other end and thought we would be running into them. But near the end of the field, the treeline on the right side of the field ended and i made a hard right turn toward that opening, expecting to dig in a wingtip, but we didn't even dip and the wide gear swung us around before getting to the trees. then we stopped rolling and got out. i'll let you all know what the engine issue was when it is taken to a hangar and the engine is replaced. Twenty responders arrived very soon. The sheriff came up and said what a great job of flying it was. A police helicopter landed and the pilot ran over to shake my hand and said he had never seen such airmanship. Lots of compliments. Then the mayor of Central (Louisiana) and five staff took us to lunch and gave us the keys to the city. The owner of the property we landed on was as nice as could be and pulled the plane up to high ground so the coming rain wouldn't bog it down. here's the field. we landed to the right and took the "high speed taxiway" exit at the right end is where we ended up, right at the bottom of the image. A lot of momentum to roll that far, but thankfully that gap in the treeline was there!