Piloting a small plane for a sightseeing flight with three passengers, I once experienced engine failure. This was partly made accident and was a valuable learning experience.
Five (minute) into the sky, I saw the right fuel tank was empty. I'd checked the tanks before take-off as the indicators (指示器) are far from (rely). I guessed the instrument failure was because of a fuel leak.
Still I'd rather be safe than sorry so I decided to change the flying position of the plane a bit (raise) fuel economy. Generally, the fuel mixture in a planes engine (have) a bit more fuel than required for burning. The unburned fuel cools the engine from the inside.
(keep) an eye on the engine temperature, I started reducing the mixture when suddenly the engine stopped. The plane went (complete) silent and started to fly on its own. I immediately applied the urgent situation checklist from memory and the engine came back to life.
I told my passengers I had to land, while they remained absolutely unaware of had just happened. Back on the ground, we found that one of the two magnetos (磁电机) providing (electric) for the spark plugs (火花塞) had failed.
