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A Pilot's Guide to Aircraft and Their Systems
In the early days of aviation, an aviator had to be pretty much a mechanic as well as a pilot because the airplanes and engines were less than completely dependable. When a pilot had a forced landing away from help, it was up to him to find and fix the problem to get the airplane back into the air. Fortunately these airplanes were not complex in their systems nor complicated to fix. In the more than half a century since World War II aircraft have become a vital component of our transportation system, developed and finely tuned to become the fast, efficient, dependable, and safe machines they are today.
These technological advances have been accompanied with additional complexities and demands that the aircraft be operated in exactly the way the designer intended. To do this, pilots must understand what each handle or knob controls and what he or she can expect from each system. Maintenance technicians must thoroughly understand the aircraft and its systems to keep them functioning as they were designed and built to do.
This book has been prepared to furnish pilots and armchair aviators with explanation and insight into what the aircraft, powerplant, and each of the systems do. In this way, the book may also serve as an introduction to the ASA Aviation Maintenance Technician Series of books that go further in depth to explain exactly how the aircraft and its systems work — textbooks for Aviation Maintenance school curriculum. But most importantly, A Pilot’s Guide to Aircraft and Their Systems will help pilots enjoy their flying and make them safer and more efficient aviators.
These technological advances have been accompanied with additional complexities and demands that the aircraft be operated in exactly the way the designer intended. To do this, pilots must understand what each handle or knob controls and what he or she can expect from each system. Maintenance technicians must thoroughly understand the aircraft and its systems to keep them functioning as they were designed and built to do.
This book has been prepared to furnish pilots and armchair aviators with explanation and insight into what the aircraft, powerplant, and each of the systems do. In this way, the book may also serve as an introduction to the ASA Aviation Maintenance Technician Series of books that go further in depth to explain exactly how the aircraft and its systems work — textbooks for Aviation Maintenance school curriculum. But most importantly, A Pilot’s Guide to Aircraft and Their Systems will help pilots enjoy their flying and make them safer and more efficient aviators.
320 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2002
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July 5, 2021
A Pilot’s Guide to Aircraft and Their Systems by Dale Crane is an absolute gem. It’s a straight-forward information dump, no fluff. Dale covers a lot of detail that’s not in the FAA Airplane Flying Handbook or Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge. I suspect this book would prove useful to any private pilot, but especially to a renter or someone contemplating an aircraft purchase. Here’s a sample of such details: the venturi can drop the fuel/air mixture by as much as 70° F; the tire ply number is not the actual number of plys; oil temperature is actually measured through pressure; considerations with single vs. multiple EGT probes; doing pre- and post-flight ELT 121.5 checks; the VSI has lag but not as much as the altimeter. And so it goes…. The value of this book is expressed in its subtitle: The more you know about your aircraft systems, the better you fly.
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