Narrative:

Departed and was in slow climb/cruise. Could hear what I thought was an unusual noise. Removed anr headset; put it back on; I thought maybe-maybe not-not sure. Just had sense something wasn't right (gut). I fly this particular regularly. Scanned all instrumentation. Engine has a chip detector. Moved throttle; prop and mixture. I could find nothing amiss. Shortly thereafter-severe vibration; total loss of power; oil on windshield. Knew ZZZ airport immediately behind me- initiated return to ZZZ. Total time from thinking something was wrong to failure was about 2 minutes. I came up with that time based on I knew where I was when I detected something to where I was when failure occurred and I knew my ground speed. So that time estimate is not a guess. Landed successfully on all three tires at ZZZ. Examination revealed failure of connecting rod bolt on #2 cylinder. Not sure how that could have been discovered prior to flight; engine was well maintained and well within tbo limits. Human factors- experience and training played out well. I always try to have some kind of an idea of where to go in such an event. I try to fly to minimize risk of off airport landings; whether that be by altitude or route. 6 miles 140 kts. Startle factor- I failed to set up best glide as quickly as I had wished. While I was pretty sure I had good margin to get back to ZZZ that was not confirmed until I completed the 180 turn to get headed back to the field. A glance at the airspeed at that point was when I realized I had not yet established best glide.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Bonanza pilot reported an engine failure resulting in a forced landing.

Narrative: Departed and was in slow climb/cruise. Could hear what I thought was an unusual noise. Removed ANR headset; put it back on; I thought maybe-maybe not-not sure. Just had sense something wasn't right (gut). I fly this particular regularly. Scanned all instrumentation. Engine has a chip detector. Moved throttle; prop and mixture. I could find nothing amiss. Shortly thereafter-severe vibration; total loss of power; oil on windshield. Knew ZZZ airport immediately behind me- initiated return to ZZZ. Total time from thinking something was wrong to failure was about 2 minutes. I came up with that time based on I knew where I was when I detected something to where I was when failure occurred and I knew my ground speed. So that time estimate is not a guess. Landed successfully on all three tires at ZZZ. Examination revealed failure of connecting rod bolt on #2 cylinder. Not sure how that could have been discovered prior to flight; engine was well maintained and well within TBO limits. Human Factors- experience and training played out well. I always try to have some kind of an idea of where to go in such an event. I try to fly to minimize risk of off airport landings; whether that be by altitude or route. 6 miles 140 kts. Startle factor- I failed to set up best glide as quickly as I had wished. While I was pretty sure I had good margin to get back to ZZZ that was not confirmed until I completed the 180 turn to get headed back to the field. A glance at the airspeed at that point was when I realized I had not yet established best glide.

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.