Once again I was reminded that I never stop learning about flying. This time it was a fuel-injected Cessna Skyhawk, which stubbornly refused to start after I landed and taxied to the gas pump to fill it up before putting it away. It was a gorgeous day in Southern California, light winds, incredible visibility and a fun flight out of Santa Monica Airport.
After trying about four times to start the warm engine, I decided to do the smart thing and pull out the official checklist for the airplane. I had been referring to one of those crappy laminated checklists that seem ubiquitous in rental aircraft, and I’ve found that these are often skimpy when it comes to specific procedures, especially the hot start. Indeed, I had flooded the engine, and once I followed the correct procedure in Cessna’s flight manual, the engine started right up. (Forgive a brief digression, but Cessna could forever fix this finnicky hot-start by installing Champion Aerospace’s clever SlickStart hot-spark start-assist device, but for some reason no one at Cessna seems to think this is a good idea. Don’t ask me why.)
Matt Thurber, editor-in-chief at AIN Media Group, has been flying since 1975 and writing about aviation since 1978 and now has the best job in the world, running editorial operations for Aviation International News, Business Jet Traveler, and FutureFlight.aero. In addition to working as an A&P mechanic on everything from Piper Cubs to turboprops, Matt taught flying at his father’s flight school in Plymouth, Mass., in the early 1980s, flew for an aircraft owner/pilot, and for two summer seasons hunted swordfish near the George’s Banks off the East Coast from a Piper Super Cub. An ATP certificated fixed-wing pilot and CFII and commercial helicopter pilot, Matt is type-rated in the Citation 500 and Gulfstream V/550. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Matt and his team cover the entire aviation scene including business aircraft, helicopters, avionics, safety, manufacturing, charter, fractionals, technology, air transport, advanced air mobility, defense, and other subjects of interest to AIN, BJT, and FutureFlight readers.
