Today’s reciprocating airplane engines are well built. But on rare occasions they do fail. Simply maintaining these engines, fl ying often, changing oil at regular intervals, doing 500 hour magneto inspections, using a comprehensive trend monitoring program to keep track of changes in operational trends and insisting on professional maintenance—lessens the possibility of a failure. These steps are preventive maintenance.

This formula works as proven by Flight Express, which bills itself as a carrier of “time critical air cargo and air freight,” that’s home based in Orlando, Florida. This company utilizes statistically-driven maintenance and operations programs to operate a fleet of 86 piston-powered airplanes across the country.

During 2002 the Flight Express fleet — which also includes Beechcraft Barons—flew 81,144 hours. Their maintenance system is so effective they changed only 76 cylinders over the course of the entire year.

INSTRUMENTATION — THE CORNERSTONE OF ENGINE MANAGEMENT
Few of us have the luxury of having a full-time team of very experienced fulltime maintenance professionals at our beck and call; but there are instrumentation systems that, when combined with preventive maintenance, help us keep an eye on our engines. Enter the engine monitor.

The most sophisticated of these tell-all systems track and record every tidbit of engine, charging system and flight data,have interactive checklists, and can even help pilots with weight and balance computations.

Pilots that install a monitor system are able to keep an eye on engine health, track mixture leaning procedures, control cylinder head temperatures, and — if used correctly — save fuel. But an engine monitor is only dashboard dressing unless the operator knows how to interpret the avalanche of data.

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