20120811017539A

Description of circumstances: level at 12000 feet, encountered precipitation and turbulance. Deviated and conducted emergency descent. At about 4000 feet oil all over windshield and landed in a field. Pilot statement:the following is a description, to the best of my knowledge and recollection, of the events of August 11 2012 on my flight from khef to kxfl in my 1973 Beechcraft V35B N11JK, FAA designator BE35/G. We departed hef around 10:50 am on an IFR flight plan. The route of flight was hef, SOP, rubys intersection, suber intersection, direct xfl. The first half of the flight was normal and without incident. North of florence SC, I was handed off to jacksonville center. I called jacksonville center to check in and there was no reply to my call. I waited a few moments and called again, this time the controller replied. Sometime later {I was not checking my watch} jacksonville center called and said "…there is light to moderate precip at my 12 o'clock 20 miles." I couldn't see the weather he was referring to because we were in and out of IMC. At about 10 miles away I saw the weather ahead of me and I called jacksonville center and requested a deviation for the weather. I received no reply. I waited a few moments to try again, but then the frequency was busy with the controller handling commercial traffic and I did not have an opportunity to make a call until we had penetrated the cloud. I pulled the power back to penetrate the cloud. Once in the cloud we encountered light drizzle which then turned into moderate to heavy precipitation. I immediately called jacksonville center and requested an immediate deviation for weather. The controller only said " one one juliet kilo turn left." No heading, not how many degrees, just" turn left". I decided to turn left about 10 degrees but before I reached even 5 degrees we were being thrown around by moderate to heavy turbulence. I'm not sure how long we were in the turbulence. I slowed the plane and did all I could to maintain directional control. Then my ahrs went out and I was forced to use my back up horizon and instruments. I could see that we were almost wings level so I initiated an emergency decent to get out of the cloud. I exited the cloud at about 4000 feet, and started to level off. The controller called and asked "are you level?" I replied "we were out of the cloud and leveling off at 3500." That is when I thought that the engine let go as there was a "bang" and then oil on the windscreen{I did not realize that the prop had departed the aircraft}. I called jacksonville center back and said "we just lost the engine." The controller then gave me a vector back to kflo that was about 10 miles behind me. I established best glide and tried to make flo. At about 1200 feet I realized that I was not going to make flo and informed the controller that " I had picked out a field and was going to put down there." I lowered the gear to scrub off some speed and altitude and set up for the off field landing. I slowed to around 70 knots not wanting to stall the aircraft and set it down as lightly as was possible. The cornfield was very wet and soft. As soon as we touched down the aircraft immediately rotated 90 degrees to the left and we slid to a stop. I made sure that my wife was ok and had her depart the aircraft. As there was no fire, I remained inside the aircraft to call jacksonville center to let them know we were down and ok. Accident site: in a corn field, approximately 5 miles southwest of kflo. As stated by the pilot, the propeller departed the aircraft, but wasn't sure when this occurred. The propeller assembly was found in a field approximately 4-5 miles from the accident site in coward county. No persons or property on ground were hurt/damaged by propeller.