20230702010569I

An instructor pilot with two students onboard departed form the northeast Florida regional airport on a training flight to atlanta, followed by a stop in Jacksonville and to return to sgj. They stated they received fuel in atlanta and sumped the tanks prior to departure and headed toward Jacksonville. The crew was performed practice instrument approaches into jax. Upon approach the student began the approach and then completed a touch and go and began the climb out to a heading of 140. Somewhere around 700 feet, the pilot stated the engine RPM began to drop to around 1500 RPM when it was last verified. He then took control back from the student and headed back to jax. He stated the aircraft appeared to be a lower than required altitude and looked for an alternate landing spot. He stated that a small road was used and during landing the left wing struck a tree branch obstructing the road and the aircraft sustained minor damage to the wing tip and no injuries to the crew. The aircraft was transported back to base. Upon further investigation at the facility maintenance performed several inspections to include the vents, spark plugs, performed a compression test, borescope the engine, changed the oil after inspecting it for metal consumption. Finally, personnel checked the fuel selector positions as well as the fuel flow divider all of which were satisfactory. Multiple engine runs were performed with all indications within normal parameters. The damage to the aircraft was isolated to the wing tip and deemed minor damage and since then has been returned to service. It is this inspector’s opinion and that of the maintenance crew after a thorough inspection and operational checks that, all indications point to fuel depletion therefore, causing the engine to perform irregular requiring an emergency off field landing.