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The view: A dead engine
The pilot: W. B. Johnson
The airplane: Cessna 414
The mission: Flying home to Springfield, MO, from Flying Cloud in Minneapolis. I was bringing my son (an airline pilot) and his family home for Thanksgiving on a bitterly cold Thanksgiving Day.
The memory: Our Cessna 414 brought us home without incident, but it was a costly trip (the turbocharger went to lunch without us, and my son couldn’t resist a snapshot).
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WB Johnson is an ASMEL-rated pilot and a flight instructor. He flies a Cessna 414.
Latest posts by WB Johnson (see all)
- Friday Photo: something looks wrong - May 7, 2021
I miss the “slide-outs” at the bottom of the pages on the old website that linked to archived pics and articles. Is it only me?
Me too.
Just curious. What were the symptoms? I’ve had turbos leak and quit producing, have had watergate stuck open, again no extra power- to having one shell out and spew debris into the induction side.
Wastegate. Not watergate. Politically motivated autocorrect
Hi Dwayne. The only symptom was the engine suddenly became normally aspirated. I called my mechanic at Autopilots Central/Sparks Aviation and he suggested I fly it down to Tulsa (from Springfield MO) so they could check it. The turbo was toast by the time I got there, and there was metal throughout the engine and prop governor, necessitating an overhaul. Not sure that was a good recommendation from Sparks.