ORIGINAL: rhklenke
To me, an indication on the ground, readily available to the spotter, as to engine status and perhaps RPM, would be much more useful in a twin.
Bob
Agreed Bob. It's even nice to know before and during takeoff that both engines are spooling up normally. You can think both engines are spooling up but its virtually impossible to know for sure by sound alone. Twice I have begun takeoff with my A-10 with one engine not having transferred to tx control (I always start mine individually via the GSU) and therefore remaining at idle. One time I realized it and aborted the takeoff, the other time I mistook it for a crosswind and got airborne before I figured it out. Managed to fly a pattern and land ok but a real time readout of both engine rpm's would have been nice.
Now I always do a partial runup with the GSU's connected to make sure both engines are responding.
Craig