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Choosing and Upgrading Your Engine Monitor

by | March 7, 2024 |

Aircraft owners often ask us for advice about what kind of engine monitor equipment we recommend installing in their airplanes. Owners who already have engine monitors installed often seek advice about upgrading them with additional capabilities or replacing them with...

In-Flight Diagnostics

by | March 6, 2024 |

The best way to diagnose an engine problem is usually in the air. Note to reader: The procedures discussed in this article for gathering flight test data are described more fully in the “Flight Test Profiles” document found under the...

Controlling the Combustion Event

by | March 6, 2024 |

Each time you change mixture, RPM or MP, it affects combustion timing. Understanding how is your best defense against harming your engine by doing something dumb. My last few columns focused on the physics of the combustion event in Otto-cycle...

Detonation and Pre-Ignition

by | March 6, 2024 |

Often confused and misunderstood, these two abnormal combustion phenomena are as different as night and day. Although we often hear people describe what goes on inside the cylinders of an Otto-cycle engine as being an explosion – i.e., a violent,...

Understanding CHT and EGT

by | March 6, 2024 |

These two key measurements can tell us a lot about what’s going on inside our cylinders. My column last month talked about the fact that our piston aircraft engines convert only about one-third of the energy contained in avgas into...

Interpreting Your Engine Monitor

by | March 6, 2024 |

The modern probe-per-cylinder digital engine monitor is a marvelous tool for keeping tabs on your engine’s health and troubleshooting its maladies. Here are some tips for figuring out what those bars and digits mean. This is embarrassing, but I might...

Deadly Switches

by | November 23, 2023 | ,

That ubiquitous key-operated ignition switch is fraught with peril On July 26, 2018, private pilot Lanny Steven Kramer of Sarasota, Florida, and his wife Fran flew to the Cleveland Regional Jetport (RZR) in Cleveland, Tennessee to run some errands, after...

Miracle in Sioux Falls

by | October 1, 2023 | ,

My hapless blunder en route to Oshkosh triggered a series of incredibly fortuitous events. It was mid-July and my annual pilgrimage to AirVenture Oshkosh was rapidly approaching. I’d finished preparing PowerPoint for the 11 different presentations I would be making....

Fortunate Catch

by | September 1, 2023 | ,

A maintenance-aware owner is the last line of defense against maintenance errors Corey owns a 1978 Bonanza A36 and is quite involved in its maintenance. He does his own oil changes and other preventive maintenance. He even bought his own...

Legal interpretations

by | August 1, 2023 | ,

If you ask FAA lawyers what a regulation means, the answer might surprise you We’ve all studied the regs. If you’re a pilot, you’ve spent hours poring over Part 61 (pilot certification, ratings, currency) and Part 91 (operating rulese, owner...

Here to Help?

by | June 1, 2023 | ,

When it comes to maintenance problems, the FAA might be able help you but only in very limited ways. My April column, titled “Booted Out of Annual,” related a true story of a Bonanza owner who put his plane in...

Mechanic Crisis

by | May 5, 2023 | ,

THERE ARE NO LONGER ENOUGH A&PS TO MAINTAIN OUR GA AIRPLANES “The annual I scheduled more than a year ago got cancelled on a five-week notice,” read a recent post to the Beechcraft Bonanza Owners Facebook group. The unhappy owner...

Booted Out of an Annual

by | April 1, 2023 | ,

This unfortunate aircraft owner was placed in an untenable position by an unreasonable maintenance manager  Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.  I’m going to change the names—I’ll call the aircraft owner “Oliver” and the A&P/IA “Isaac” and the shop manager...

A Matter of Trust

by | February 1, 2023 | ,

How far does your IA have to go to verify that your aircraft is airworthy? The subject line of the email got my attention: “Annual gone wrong…please help!” The author—let’s call him Morrie—identified himself as a first-time airplane owner. “I...

Obsessed with EGT

by | January 18, 2023 | ,

Don’t use exhaust gas temperature as a leaning reference I respond to at least 100 queries from aircraft owners and pilots each week. At least a dozen of those are questions or requests for advice about leaning, and most of...

System Awareness

by | December 1, 2022 | ,

Situational awareness requires being aware of your aircraft’s systems, too. On Saturday, August 26, 2022, a young CFI took off from Monterey, California in a Cessna 172 on a “Discovery Flight.” His passengers were a young couple, with the man...

What Price Speed? 

by | August 1, 2022 | ,

Optimal flying in a world of expensive avgas.  With fuel prices at all-time highs, it’s more important than ever for pilots of GA airplanes to fly in a fuel-efficient fashion. I am especially sensitive to this issue because I fly...
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