There are some old engines that did use battery power for
the ignition and in those, the battery master must be on.
But, in general aircraft built in the post WWII period have
two independent magnetos and the battery is used for lights,
starting and radios, etc. Some aircraft had one magneto and
one coil/distributor [like a car], so the AFM/POH should be
read. Also ignition operation should be checked on the
ground as part of the pre or post-flight checklists.



"Blueskies" wrote in message
t...
|
| "Peter Dohm" wrote in message
...
| :
| : No, but he should know that that the Right mag is hot
(firing plugs) and the
| : Left mag is cold (not firing) when the switch is in the
"R" position, and
| : that the Right mag is cold (not firing) and the Left mag
is hot (firing
| : plugs) when the switch is in the "L" position. That
much systems knowledge
| : would seem usefull for a safe and reasonable Go/NoGo
decision prior to
| : take-off, and also to explain a problem to an efficient
manner.
| :
| : Knowledge of the specifics of how the ignition system
works could be very
| : usefull in the case of "stealing your oun airplane"
because you lost the key
| : at a remote hunting/fishing spot; but I can not imagine
that being part of
| : an accredited licensing test.
| :
| : Peter
| :
| :
|
| But they sure as heck should know that turning off the
master switch will not turn off their engine.
|
|