I dont recall if it was a checkride, or just a flight with a friendly instructor putting me through some maneuvers. At some portion during it, however, the right-seater asked me what the single engines oil pressure was reading. It must have been a frustrating ride for me, because I responded with something like, I guess its still in the green, because the engine hasnt quit, but Ive been so busy I havent had time to look. My response didnt go over well, but we both may have learned something from it.
For my part, I learned I needed to do a better job of monitoring the airplanes engine instruments-probably along with some other stuff-regardless of what else was going on in the cockpit. Its tough, sometimes, to have the bandwidth to work the engine instruments into our instrument panel scans. During high-workload situations-takeoffs and departures, for example, approaches or even simple pattern work-its entirely possible the first sign of an engine problem well notice is the stopped prop in front of our faces.
