Oleg, SOW engine abuse by pilot?

[Blackdog_kt]

Brilliant post Azimech. Just goes to show how much enhanced systems modelling would open up new tactical possibilities and situations.

Another one, consider the effects of hypoxia with a damaged oxygen delivery system, as well as the risk of fire because of leaking oxygen. If your aircraft doesn't suffer some kind of immediate fire or explosion (in the event that the pressurized tank suffers a direct hit by a cannon shell or an incendiary round), you would still be limited to 10000-12000 feet or thereabouts for the remainder of the mission.

As for magnetos, the main reason to switch between them is not to run on a single one but to determine if one of the two has failed. Initially dual magnetos were provided as a means of redundacy/safety, but then it was discovered that the engine works better with both of them on just like you pointed out.

It then became standard practice to run the engine on both, unless a failure of one system forced the pilot to switch to the other. The way the magneto check works is that when running on both the engine runs at a slightly higher RPM than when running on one. Usually, the drop in RPM is miniscule (50-100 in many cases) but it still registers on the instrument needles.

Knowing the correct drop, it's easy to cross check and see it it's "by the numbers" supplied by the manufacturer or not. In fact, pilot operating handbooks usually state permissible values as "a drop of no more than X RPM when switching from both to a single magneto AND no more than Z RPM difference when comparing left and right magnetos". In this way, if the RPM drops more than X RPM when running on the left magneto, and/or running on the left magneto is more than Z RPM lower than when running on the right one, it's easy to see that the left magneto is faulty.