The GA Plane Engine

Aviation engines sort into two main types. The reciprocating engine, and the turbine engine. Piston engines are mostly featured by GA planes, some advance twin engine planes included as turbine engines are featured by commercial planes and airliners

Reciprocating engines are mostly similar to those used, for example, aboard cars. With a intake-compression-power-exhaust cycle, a air-fuel mix is compressed and ignited, which, through a explosion, makes each piston of the engine work. That motion in turn makes a crankshaft turn which is powering the plane's propeller. Most of aviation engines are cooled by air, which is simplier, safer and less weight-adding. The spark, which is having the air-fuel mixture exploding and triggering the engine cycle, is yielded, for the set of pistons, by a magneto, as each piston is featuring two spark plugs. A magneto is a device which produces electrical power via a rotating magnet; that rotation, for a plane engine, is produced by the engine vilebrequin. There are two magneto for each plane's engine. Should a spark plug or a magneto fails the additional spark plug or the second magneto allow for the engine to keep running. A plane's engine thus is featuring a double-ignition system which is warranting safety as it further improves, through two-spark-generators, the functionment of the engine. Both magnetos, on the other hand, are not relying upon the plane's battery once engine started

A plane's engine is feeded with a mixture of air and fuel. That occurs through either a carburetor, or a fuel injection system

• a carburetor is used for most GA planes of a power of less than 200 hp. A carburetor serves to mix the fuel coming from the tanks to air as it pushes that mixture forwards to the engine pistons as the air-fuel mixture is starting the engine cycle as it is ignited by the spark plug. The standard porportion between air and fuel is 15 to 1. As the air density varies with altitude, planes featuring a carburetor have also a command controlling the fuel reaching there: the more a plane is climbing, the less fuel is to be admitted to the carburetor as there is less air in altitude. The mixture control thus either backwards is leaning, or forwards is enriching the mixture in fuel. Too much fuel in the mixture leads to a engine which works irregularly, at a too low temperature, loosing power and with spark plugs ill-functionning as too less fuel to a engine working irregularly, with detonation, overheating and a loss of power with a risk of deteriorating the engine or engine stop. Fuel vaporization in the carburetor yields a swift decrease in temperature and, in the aviation conditions, when the dew point is reached, one has to compensate for any risk of icing. That is provided through carburetor heat which has to be used in icing conditions or during descents, when gas are leaned
• the fuel injection system consists into injected fuel either directly into the pistons, or just ahead of the piston intake valve. The mix with air is done there. Fuel injection system is mostly found with planes of a power superior to 200 hp. Its suppresses the question of carburetor icing, is bringing faster throttle response in power and a easier engine start by cold weather. It however yields vapor locks during ground operations on hot days and difficulty into starting or re-starting a hot engine. The fuel injection system comes with engine flaps with which pilot sets the quantity of cold air running into the engine at the effect of cooling when the engine works at full power, like at takeoff or during extended climbs

Reciprocating, carburator or fuel-injection engines thus are controlled through two commands. The gas throttle is increasing the quantity of the fuel-air mixture which enters the carburator or participates into the injection system, as the mixture control is setting the quantity of fuel which arrives to carburetor or cylinders. The carburetor heat further possibly comes to complement. When the plane is featuring a adjustable-pitch propeller, a pitch control is extant too in the plane