While propeller controls are being eliminated from newer airplanes like this Cirrus, the mixture control remains. Learning to use it means understanding how to get from your engine what you want.

By Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside

Old wive’s tales (OWTs) are rampant in general aviation, but they are perhaps most prevalent when it comes to engine management. Many of these “hand-me-down” procedures on how to operate a piston engine are often drawn from the WWII era, when teaching airmanship and combat skills took precedence over powerplant management. They also can be attributed to poor understanding of the elements of engine management among flight instructors and to flight school policies.

Regardless of the underlying reasons, the vast majority of GA pilots not only received little fact-based instruction in how to use their engine controls, but much of the training they did receive was wrong.…