Engines

Every time I do research or reader surveys on mogas for airplanes, I come away thinking I must be living in an alternate universe. Or maybe the people I talk to are. In todays news columns, were reporting on the results of our recent avgas survey, which revealed some interesting movement in opinions toward mogas. […]

A strong case to change your own oil can be made. You certainly can save a fair amount of money, especially if you get your oil by the case, but more importantly, it puts you in touch with your engines lifeblood. You can see how it looks and feels from change to change; smell any […]

At AirVenture, the really cool airplane wasn’t from an airplane manufacturer but from Redbird, the guys who build motion simulators. They showed off a nicely refurb’d Cessna 172 with a diesel engine from Continental, and they invited us to come fly it at their San Marcos, Texas Skyport. So we did. In this video, we […]

Piper Aircraft has announced the successful completion of a 2100-mile round-trip flight in a Piper Archer flying with 93 octane unleaded automobile gasoline provided by Airworthy AutoGas LLC. The company says the flight was conducted as a demonstration and test of Airworthy’s specially formulated auto gas. It is a continuation of previous joint testing that […]

With a massive AD against ECI cylinders in the offing, we would like to know reader experiences not just with ECI cylinders, but other brands as well. If you’ve got five minutes to spare, you can tell us about your satisfaction–or lack thereof–with aircraft cylinders you’ve been flying behind. Just click here to take the […]

Heres my definition of a bad day: You overhauled your Barons IO-520s a couple of years ago using cylinders from ECI and now the FAA would like you to remove those jugs and replace them with something else. Round it off and call that about $25,000. Thats the basic gist of a proposed airworthiness directive […]

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Universitys testing of GAMIs G100UL unleaded fuel looks promising, the school told AVweb last week, and it says it sees no reason why the fuel cant be a drop-in replacement for 100LL. With two major flight training campuses, ERAU wants an unleaded replacement for avgas sooner rather than later and has been testing […]

ECi is using a new web page to highlight resistance to the FAA’s proposed Airworthiness Directive targeting TITAN brand 520/550 series cylinders produced between 2002 and 2009 that may cost $83 million in compliance-associated costs, but the resistance isn’t universal. The FAA wants to require initial and repetitive inspections of the cylinders, plus full replacements […]

Ive always figured there were two theories of aircraft ownership: the magic carpet school and the ticking time bomb philosophy. The former gets tangled up in the romance and passion of airplanes as a means of justifying virtually any aircraft-related expense, no matter how irrational or how large. The time bomb view, which is what […]

Last weeks massive proposed airworthiness directive aimed at thousands of Engine Components International cylinder assemblies is drawing mixed reactions from engine overhaul shops, according to an AVweb canvass of shops this week. While some say the proposed AD is a kneejerk over reaction, at least one shop told AVweb that the AD is justified, based […]