Aero-Tips!
A good pilot is always learning -- how many times have you heard
this old standard throughout your flying career? There is no truer
statement in all of flying (well, with the possible exception of
"there are no old, bold pilots.")
Aero-News has called upon the expertise of Thomas P. Turner,
master CFI and all-around-good-guy, to bring our readers -- and us
-- daily tips to improve our skills as aviators. Some of them, you
may have heard before... but for each of us, there will also be
something we might never have considered before, or something that
didn't "stick" the way it should have the first time we memorized
it for the practical test.
Look for our daily Aero-Tips segments, coming each day to you
through the Aero-News Network.
Aero-Tips 11.04.06
Much of my working day is spent answering aviation-related
questions. Very frequently the topic is engine management --
especially since the members of the organization
that pays my bills operate six-cylinder,
high-horsepower piston engines. My experience begs two
questions:
- How much to pilots need to know about engine management?
- How much do pilots want to know about engine management?
Need to know
Tachometer. Manifold pressure. Fuel flow. Exhaust gas
temperature. Cylinder head temperature. Turbine inlet temperature.
Oil temperature. Oil pressure. Operating any piston aircraft engine
involves no less than three of these variables (tachometer, oil
temperature and oil pressure). Many involve more, and the
best-equipped, most powerful engines use them all. A
typically-equipped light twin is extraordinarily monitor-intensive.
The 58TC Baron I flew for a few years had two of everything and
(with all-cylinder display) a total of 30 engine temperature
indications to watch simultaneously. I didn't have to obsess with
engine management to the point it distracted me from flying the
airplane, but the potential was definitely there. I could not have
safely flown the airplane and protect the engines from possible
long-term problems without knowing the relationships between each
of the power variables, closely watching indications to avoid
temperature excursions, and manually manipulating throttles,
propeller speed, mixture, cowl flaps and indicated airspeed to keep
temperatures under control. I felt the title of Kas Thomas' early
1990s engine management classic Fly the Engine was an accurate
description of piloting the Baron.
Want to know
Many pilots I know (most of whom have been flying complex
airplanes for years, if not decades) want to have manual control
over all these variables. They scoff at engine automation and
actively oppose anything like single power-lever control or
electronic ignition systems if it reduces their ability to
manipulate each variable.
I'm becoming convinced however, that most pilots don't want to
have to worry about the minutia of engine management. They want to
push a button to start it up, and move a single lever fore and aft
to control power. They want engine temperature management to occur
automatically; they want the system to tell them when conditions
deviate from norms. They don't want the aeronautical equivalent of
an old car's manual clutch transmission and manual choke.
Aero-tip of the day: Think about what you need
and want to know about engine management. Seek out what you need to
know, and use the Discuss This Topic link below to let us know if
you would prefer (a) manual control of all engine variables or (b)
an engine that accepts simply pilot input and adjusts
automatically.