morning, the Arkansas-based owner loaded his
wife and kids into the airplane and departed on
an 800-nm IFR flight plan to Kissimmee Gateway
Airport, Florida, for a family mini-vacation at
Disney World.
The owner-pilot climbed to his flight-planned
altitude of FL190, programmed the state-of-the-art
Garmin Perspective avionics, put the digital auto-
pilot into nav-track and altitude-hold, tuned in his
favorite Sirius XM music channel, and settled back
to enjoy the crystal clear, silky smooth air and 220-
knot groundspeed readout, thinking, “Aviation
doesn’t get much better than this.”
A bit more than halfway to Kissimmee, however,
the pilot sensed a loss of power and airspeed and
realized there had been an uncommanded drop in
manifold pressure (MP) from the expected 30
inches to something much less. He quickly scanned
the information-rich engine data page on his multi-
functional display (MFD) and determined that all
other engine parameters—CHTs, EGTs, oil pres-
sure and temperature, fuel flow, etc.—were within
acceptable limits. It seemed as if the airplane’s tur-
bocharged engine had become normally aspirated.
After his family and their luggage
were unloaded, the owner—one of
my firm’s managed-maintenance
clients—called us to describe what
happened and seek advice.
The pilot advised ATC of his predicament and
requested a lower altitude. During his descent, MP
rose about 1 inch per 1,000 feet, seemingly confirming his “normally aspirated” diagnosis. The
aircraft leveled off at the lower cruising altitude.
All engine data still looked fine, so the pilot elected
to continue to his planned destination and landed
without further incident.
After his family and their luggage were
unloaded, the owner—one of my firm’s managed-maintenance clients—called us to describe what
happened and seek advice. It was now late Sunday
afternoon. Several of our most experienced A&P/
IAs huddled and quickly agreed that the cause was
almost certainly a major induction system leak
caused by a hose clamp that had been loosened
