> It's deranged that students these days are taught to manually lean the mixture until the engine sputters (i.e. the engine begins to DIE), then bump it back up.
Why? That is essentially an engine check. I think you want pilots to understand their machines and to do that you need to operate the engines.
I'm not sure I see the value of doing an engine check while flying the plane, or flying carbureted engines without automatic mixture control in general.
Pilots will understand their engines' quirks better, but those quirks are stupid and obviated by newer technology.
Forget mixture, carb ice keeps killing people in 2025. Even just moving everyone to dumb mechanical fuel injection will be a big step forward at this point…
Why? That is essentially an engine check. I think you want pilots to understand their machines and to do that you need to operate the engines.