dragchute
I find your comment “ignore the Cowboys” totally offensive, ill-informed and totally unjustified. I have a considerable amount of experience in GA on light twins. I am a former Chief Pilot of a very large Charter Company with an impeccable safety record. I am also a former Chief Flying Instructor and I also have a considerable amount of experience in check and training and maintenance control. We had it explicitly written in our SOP’s that run-ups were to be done symmetrically. There were two reasons this was required:
1. The load that was imposed on the nose gear during an asymmetric run-up. The nose wheel assembly of a Cessna 400 series is exactly the same part as on a Cessna 310. Our engineering department always paid particular attention to this area, as it was the Achilles Heal of the 400 Series. Check all the AD’s on the nose wheel assembly.
2. The stress that is placed on the tail plane. Particularly on the 404 with its considerable dihedral.
Your assertion that symmetrical run ups is bad airmanship is misleading. Any run up with out a good lookout is bad airmanship. Like wise any pilot who blindly taxies behind any aircraft, particularly a twin in a run up bay is also showing a bad judgment in airmanship. You also talk about the likelihood of T’s & P’s not being at the proper level on the last engine to be started. What a load of BS. If it’s such a problem, wait another 30 seconds or maybe taxi a little slower. As for brake creep and hitting the expensive Lear in front of you. You shouldn’t be relying on your hand brake during a run up anyway. Keep your feet on the brake pedals as well and don’t do your run ups behind another aircraft. The whole idea of symmetrical run ups for us wasn’t to save time but to save unnecessary maintenance costs.
