"Kyler Laird" wrote in message
...
If an engine stops (against the pilot's wishes) in flight becuase it
can no longer get fuel, that's "engine failure". If it stops because
it can no longer get air, that's just "pilot error"?

Yes and no. It depends on why the engine can no longer get fuel. The most
common reason for an engine to be starved of fuel is that the pilot didn't
bring enough fuel along for the trip. This is pilot error. I already made
it clear that I realize this is one of the most common reasons for an engine
failure and that my comments regarding the statistics of engine failures
exclude engine failures due to fuel exhaustion.

Likewise, my comments regarding the statistics of engine failures exclude
engine failures due to a pilot flying into something that causes the air
intake to become clogged.

My comments are specifically targeted at genuine *failures*. That is,
something broke. There are plenty of reasons an engine might stop running,
but not all of them are pertinent to a reliability analysis discussing
failure rates and statistical chances of failure. You seem to keep trying
to introduce irrelevent types of engine failures, while I try to make clear
what it is I'm talking about.

Maybe I haven't been clear enough, but hopefully you're starting to get the
idea of what I'm actually talking about.

Pete