Maintenance

Proper leaning during idle and taxi operations is much more important thanmost pilots understand. It can solve spark plug fouling problems, reducevalve guide wear and valve sticking problems, and prolong engine life.Here’s why. Mixture distribution is poor at idle. At a rich idle mixture, some fueldoesn’t vaporize and enters the cylinder as a liquid where […]

Identifying the problem Alternator induced radio noise is a high pitched whine whose pitchand intensity increases and decreases with changes in engine speed.Turning the alternator master switch off also turns off the radionoise. Solid state regulators that use a pulse-width-modulated fieldcontrol system can also create a whine in the radios. Regulator-causedwhine can be distinguished from […]

Each cylinder of your piston aircraft enginehas two valves—intake and exhaust—that open and close by slidingin and out through a close-tolerance valve guide. A stuck valveis one that no longer slides readily in its guide. A stuck valvemay refuse to open, or once open it may refuse to close. Eithersituation is quite serious. Stuck valves […]

Dear Cessna 210 Owner, FAA records indicate that you recently registered a Cessna 210 aircraft. I am writing to brief you on several safety-critical topics that we believe every Centurion owner should be aware of. Our experience indicates that many 210 owners (even some experienced ones) are not aware of certain important characteristics of this […]

AVweb’scomments are in red. Why would a sane and profitable multi-national conglomeratelike Textron want to mess around with engines for little airplanes? Because as long as we return to the shareholder the profits theyexpect, we’ll be in the engine business. And we have been ableto do that. If it gets to the point that an […]

Will the piston engines of tomorrow incorporate new technologyof will they just be more of the same? Do piston aircraft engineseven have a future? To answer these questions, we’ve been touringthe country talking to as many engine experts as we could find.This is the second article in a periodic series on the currentstate and future […]

Will the piston engines of tomorrow incorporate new technologyof will they just be more of the same? Do piston aircraft engineseven have a future? To answer these questions, we’ve been touringthe country talking to as many engine experts as we could find.This is the second article in a periodic series on the currentstate and future […]

Oil is the lifeblood of your engine. To achieve maximum engine life, it is crucial to choose the correct oil and to change it regularly at the correct intervals using the correct procedures. If you were flying behind a turbine engine, the choice of oil would be easy. You’d simply choose the slipperiest, longest lasting […]

The most important adjustment your mechanic can make on your fuel-injected Continental powerplant is to set the fuel flows properly. There are four separate adjustments, two at the fuel pump and two at the fuel control unit. Perhaps the most important adjustment, known as high unmetered fuel pressure, determines the fuel flow at takeoff power. […]

It was late Friday afternoon, the first day of our month-long vacation trip to the East Coast. We were somewhere between Albuquerque NM and Dalhart TX, headed for Tulsa, cruising at FL180 to stay above the ice. My wife was fast asleep in the back of our Cessna Turbo 310, bundled tightly in her security […]