Anticipating Engine Failure

Failure of a single-engine aircrafts lone powerplant is something students train for beginning with their first instructional flight. If they continue to certification, theyve studied the basics of how engines work, the air, fuel and ignition source they need to keep working, and at least some understanding of the signs theyre about to stop. Most trainers lack the kind of sophisticated engine instrumentation that technology has brought us over the last couple of decades, so many students still fly behind gauges the basic design of which can be traced back to pre-WWII automobiles.

Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside

Monday, July 18, 2016 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Modern aircraft engine monitors offer sophisticated diagnostics, yet pilots often fail to understand or properly utilize their indications, leading to overlooked warnings of impending engine failure.
A fatal Beech Bonanza crash was attributed to a catastrophic engine failure caused by detonation/preignition damage in one cylinder, resulting in severe internal engine damage and oil loss.
The NTSB concluded that a contributing factor to the accident was the pilot's decision to continue the flight despite probable and observable signs of engine distress, which may have been evident during an unusually long pre-takeoff run-up.

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Failure of a single-engine aircraft’s lone powerplant is something students train for beginning with their first instructional flight. If they continue to certification, they’ve studied the basics of how engines work, the air, fuel and ignition source they need to keep working, and at least some understanding of the signs they’re about to stop. Most trainers lack the kind of sophisticated engine instrumentation that technology has brought us over the last couple of decades, so many students still fly behind gauges the basic design of which can be traced back to pre-WWII automobiles.

As they progress to more sophisticated aircraft, so, too, does the engine instrumentation become more capable. Today, the modern engine monitors available for aircraft can display many more parameters than the old gauges, and even present more details than a top-of-the-line luxury car. If there’s any problem remaining, it’s that pilots all too rarely don’t know how to use an engine monitor, or disregard its indications.