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April 1, 2016

When it comes to starting airplane engines, there are lots of opinions.  It might be worth taking a new look at your technique.

Whatever your procedure is, your engine should be treated with as much care as possible.

How about asking these 4 questions:

  1.  Why not try starting your airplane engine with the throttle all the way back?  It makes for a much gentler start.
  2.   Which looks more professional… a nice gentle and smooth start, or an abrupt start with an immediate roar to 1800 RPM?  That one’s easy!
  3. Will your engine run smoothly with the throttle all the way back?  It’s a good idea to check this occasionally.
  4. Does your engine need any idle adjustment to make it run properly?

In today’s episode, I talk about my favorite procedures for starting both a fuel injected engine, and a carbureted engine.

Here is the old, FAA training video that I mentioned in today’s podcast.  And for me, it’s one more reason why it’s a good idea to get in the habit of starting your airplane engine with the throttle all the way back, in the closed position.

In this case, if the throttle had been all the way back, this incident would likely have been avoided.

Last week, I mentioned finding an engine thru stud loose, and the cylinder base nut broken… well, it turns out the engine needs a tear-down inspection due to not knowing how long the engine was run like that and needing to verify no internal engine damage has happened.

Here is that engine:

IMG_3255