Flying during 36 years, 1500 hours of which : (roughly)
(a) 150 hours in club rentals (simple training/touring aircraft)
(b) 450 hours in private rentals (mostly complex aircraft, some historic)
(c) 900 hours in own private aircraft.
In general the private rentals were flown with better engine management skills so their engines would be less abused.
Mostly Lycoming engines (O320/O360, IO360, IO540), some Continentals, 100hp RRs. About 50h with Gipsy Majors.
It would be interesting to hear from people who do thousands of hours on club rentals (instructorsw maybe?) whether power/mixture abuse actually makes for more engine failures in their experience. Does the greater utilization and more frequent maintenance checks of the club rentals offset the abuse, or not?
Watch out for my pink aeroplane.
Would that be this one?
Pink aeroplane car | Flickr - Photo Sharing!