BY JOSEPH B. NADEAU

CUMBERLAND — A private pilot was able to make an emergency landing at Schofield Farm Saturday morning after experiencing engine troubles and running out of time on an approach to North Central State Airport.

The pilot was unhurt after the Piper Cherokee plane made a bumpy landing on the rough turf of the field and came to a stop in a stand of small trees at the far east corner of the property, according to Cumberland Police and James Warcup, an aeronautics inspector for the Rhode Island Airport Corporation.
The landing caused the plane’s left wing tip to break off but no fuel was spilled from the aircraft, Warcup said.
The Rhode Island and Federal Aviation investigators would be checking out the plane’s engine to determine what problem may have caused the forced landing, he said.
Warcup credited the pilot, who he only identified as a resident of Tiverton regularly flying out of area airports, with completing a well-executed emergency landing.
“You train for emergencies but rarely the whole event,” Warcup said. “He did what he needed to do and I think he did a good job of it,” Warcup said.
The pilot had taken off from T.F. Green State Airport in Warwick at 8 a.m. Monday as the only occupant of the four-seat Cherokee planning to fly to New Hampshire, according to Warcup.
At about 8:30 a.m., Cumberland Police received a 911 call from a resident of the Nate Whipple Highway area reporting a plane in trouble.
 The plane was reported to have crashed in the town-owned open field off Nate Whipple Highway known as Schofield Farm, police said.
 Police officers responding found the damaged Piper Cherokee on the ground and the pilot to have escaped injury.
 The North Cumberland and Cumberland Rescues responded to the location as a precaution and State Police and the aviation investigators were also called to the site, police said.
 By late afternoon Monday, the plane had been moved closer to Nate Whipple Highway in anticipation of being trucked off the property possibly today.
 The site of the aircraft in the green field surrounded by police tape prompted some motorists traveling on NateWhipple to pull over for a better look and news crews also set up for live shots from the scene for local news broadcasts.
 Warcup said the pilot indicated during a preliminary investigation of the incident that he had been flying at about 7,500 feet when the engine problems began just over the R.I. -Massachusetts border. The pilot contact air controllers at T.F. Greene and turned around to return to his starting point. Air controllers recommended a landing at North Central State Airport in Lincoln, but the pilot believed he would not be able to complete the approximate five mile trip.
 “He didn’t believe he had the speed or altitude to stretch it the added five miles or more,” Warcup said.
 The pilot spotted the field in Cumberland and decided to set down there immediately.
 While likely appearing smooth from altitude, Warcup said the pilot encountered very bumpy ground while making the landing and was fortunate to have completed the maneuver as safely as he did.
  “When you think that there were no injuries, no fuel leaks or hazardous materials after all that, he really was pretty lucky,” Warcup said.