Michael Ash writes:

This is the kind of amusing idealism that is common from someone not very
well versed in the real world.

I don't think there's anything idealistic about it. My guess is that
certification of engines is so extraordinarily expensive, and private plane
owners are so (relatively) poor, that nobody could afford to pay for a truly
modern piston engine. So the same designs are used for decades.

The situation is different with airlines, because they have more money and can
save more money. The economics favor advances in engine design and control,
and certification is much less of an expense.

At least that's my guess. But it does keep private pilots back in the 1940s.

I used to feel the same way, but reality simply is not cooperative in this
respect. Technology can compensate to some degree. You no longer need to
know very much about cars at all to own one (for which I am eternally
grateful). But you still need to know some things. The car can't protect
you against everything. You still have to think about when to get your oil
changed (even if the computer reminds you), you still have to know that
shifting into reverse while on the highway is not a good move, etc.

Yes, but you don't have to adjust mixture and timing as you drive. You don't
have to worry about the exhaust temperature. You have a cooling system that
doesn't vary dramatically in efficiency with your speed. And so on.

But automobile engines require virtually nothing in the way of certification.
This has become apparent in some cases when computer controls added to engines
have misbehaved, because manufacturers never bother to design and test them
adequately. The consequences of that would be much worse in the air.

If you think engine management is distracting, you should see what *I*
have to go through to stay aloft. All sorts of thinking going on there.
And yet I and every other glider pilot manages to fly the plane too.

But glider pilots like going through the extra stuff, otherwise they wouldn't
be glider pilots. And you don't have to worry about an engine.