After a loud explosion from the single engined Cessna woke up my sole passenger, I tried to gain additional height and continue flight to my refuelling destination (the closest airstrip around but still another 20 minutes of flying away!) while flying pretty well parallel to the highway below. While “cruising”, I considered my emergency landing options, and the thought of landing besides the highway on the rough, sandy & scrubby terrain didn’t appeal very much, especially considering there was a stretch of bitumen all the way to the airport. I asked Flight Service if I could land on the highway if I had to. There was a pause, but they answered “yes”! I’ll bet a lot of you don’t believe that, but this was in Outback Australia a long time ago.
Now, if I HAD to have landed before getting to my airport, then I would’ve tried to land on the highway in between cars and trucks. In those daze, there wasn’t a lot of traffic on Outback roads! If that wasn’t possible then I would’ve landed besides the highway. And possibly, no, probably have flipped the thing.
BTW, I arrived at my destination a good 4,000’ above the aerodrome. I wasn’t giving away ANY of my height away until I was absolutely positively sure I could circle around and glide if the prop blades stopped suddenly. As it turned out, the head of a cylinder blew off, held on by one bolt, fuel line and spark plug lead, looking like a can with the lid only partially opened.