"Captain Wubba" wrote in message
om...
Howdy. I was discussing with a friend of mine my concerns about flying
single-engine planes at night or in hard IFR, due to the possibility
of engine failure. My buddy is a CFI/CFII/ATP as well as an A&P, about
3500 hours, and been around airplanes for a long time, so I tend to
give credence to his experiences. He asked me how often I thought a
piston engine had an in-flight engine failure. I guestimated once
every 10,000 hours or so. He said that was *dramatically*
over-estimating the failure rate. He said that in his experience it is

I would say the failure rate is not uniform, and would depend a lot on how the
aircraft are maintained and utilized. Ex: the large univesity flight school I
went to that flies on the order of 10,000 hours a year, has had no engine
failures in the past 10 years that weren't due to pilot error.

However, the company I towed banners for had two complete engine failures and
two partial power failures in the two 3 month seasons I worked for them. In my
1100 hours, I've had one quit on takeoff when a mag that was improperly torqued
down slipped and put the ignition way out of time, and one partial power loss
when a leaky oil control ring finally let go and fouled out one cylinder.

And be careful using NTSB data for your analysis, as not all engine failures are
cause for a report; both of mine ended with me making it home and no bent metal,
so they aren't in the database.

--
Mike