Originally Posted by
Big Pistons Forever
The event I will describe occurred while flying formation but the engine issue could just have easily occurred when I was flying alone and other than the initial re-organization of the formation my actions would have been the same.
I was flying my Nanchang CJ6 leading a 4 ship formation of Nanchang's and my troubles started with a mild RPM oscillations. So I went to full rich, scanned the gauges, which were normal and then turned the formation towards our home airport which was about 15 miles away. As soon as I had finished the turn the engine stumbled with a noticeable and significant momentary loss of power before picking up again. The engine gauges showed normal readings for the conditions and power setting.
What would you do ?
Smoothly transition to a steady route home and scan for other places to land.
Fuel filters clogging up will give hiccup etc. warnings before restricting flow enough to stop an engine. (There's also a recent thread here on an antique crashing due to debris clogging the fuel line)