Ownership

I‘ve had wonderful luck with piston aircraft engines throughout my 37 years as an aircraft owner. All the engines on my airplanes have made TBO with minimal maintenance along the way, and in recent years they’ve gone well beyond TBO.For decades, I was convinced that the secret of my success was the fact that I […]

I subjected my still-new (and barely broken-in) Barrett-built IO-390-X to the kind of abuse that would make the old pelican himself, John Deakin, stand up in a crowd and shake his fist at me. I ran the cylinder heads to a temperature that would make any half-smart metallurgist cringe. I flogged my four-banger in a […]

Prop strikes come in all kinds of flavors. Some involve obvious sudden stoppages of the engine (for example, a gear-up landing). In others, the engine keeps running, perhaps with some short-term loss of RPM as the prop tips curl back. Still others occur when the engine is not running (such as when a car backs […]

This article will cover brake linings, disc replacement, inspection guidelines and operational tips and techniques for Cleveland/McCauley-type brake systems, the most prevalent in piston, single-engine, GA aircraft. There are also Goodyear-type brakes, which will be covered at another time. It should be noted that repairs to brake systems are not considered “Preventative Maintenance” by FAR […]

Bob Moseley is far too humble to call himself a guru, but he knows as much about piston aircraft engines as anyone I’ve ever met. That’s not surprising, because the man has been rebuilding Continental and Lycoming engines for the better part of 40 years. Consequently, there’s not much about these engines that he hasn’t […]

Last year at Oshkosh, Garmin dropped the weather bomb on pilot nerds with the GPSMAP396, the first integrated, portable navigator with XM weather and music capabilities. Built on the 296 platform, it was faster, more capable and so feature rich that you might get through War and Peace before finishing the user’s manual. Now comes […]

Like the changing of seasons, I imagine this scene happens at regular intervals through the year: The managing editor of some large technology magazine catches a story on the net about some crazy aviation idea that could revolutionize the industry, make flying possible for every man, woman and (quite possibly) child on the planet with […]

You know me. I’m the “To TBO and Beyond” guy. I believe in running engines as long as they’re demonstrably healthy, even if that means going beyond the manufacturer’s recommended TBO. Nothing disturbs me more than when I hear about owners who are talked into tearing down an engine that’s running just fine (or talk […]

The FAA held its second public “summit meeting” about aging GA airplanes on March 22-23, 2006. More than 170 representatives of government, industry, owner groups and type clubs packed the meeting room in Kansas City to listen to what the FAA had to say on the subject, and to present their views and ideas to […]

It’s an unfortunate fact of life that aircraft engines are often not the cleanest things in the world, especially when compared to a typical auto of today. Loose engine-fit tolerances, the use of leaded fuels, substantially higher constant power levels and designs optimized for power rather than cleanliness tend to make oil staining and leaks […]