gismo
Touchdown! Greaser!
At the beginning of an article on preheating in this month's Plane&Pilot magazine the author made an incredible statement:
While it is reasonable to assume that cold (defined in the article as below freezing) starts cause more wear than most other operations, this obvious exaggeration would have you believe that four such starts are all that's necessary to require the overhaul of a recently broken in engine. Even if you subscribe to the unproven popular notion that a normal (above freezing) start causes as much cylinder/ring wear as an hour of flight and an average flight time of as little as one hour, a 2000 hr TBO engine's life would be cut in half by four cold starts.
Why do they publish such nonsense?
Plane&Pilot said:Starting a cold engine can give it the equivalent of 500 hours of cruise wear and tear, according to engine authorities.
While it is reasonable to assume that cold (defined in the article as below freezing) starts cause more wear than most other operations, this obvious exaggeration would have you believe that four such starts are all that's necessary to require the overhaul of a recently broken in engine. Even if you subscribe to the unproven popular notion that a normal (above freezing) start causes as much cylinder/ring wear as an hour of flight and an average flight time of as little as one hour, a 2000 hr TBO engine's life would be cut in half by four cold starts.
Why do they publish such nonsense?