My heart goes out to Nancy and Shannon's family. He was a great guy.

 

For what its worth:

1. roads make poor places to put down in an emergency-- too many obstacles around them. Consider light poles, traffic, abutments, overpasses, etc.

 

2. glide ratio-- with an engine out if its not under the nose or inside the wingtips don't consider it. Practice the visual picture. You must practice this often. Unless you have a feathering prop, stopping the prop will require you to stall the aircraft or get darn close to a stall to get it to stop windmilling. You have enough problems with an engine out without doing that, too.

 

3. Speculation as to the cause will not help the NTSB solve this accident. If you have information regarding Shannon and his airplane,  please call the NTSB field office in Chicago, IL at 630-377-8177 and ask to speak to the investigator in charge. Valin's comments are noteworthy.

 

Jeff Edwards LIVP N619SJ CFII