i recently purchased a plane that had a used bme 44......to me, the compression seems to be very low....the plane starts ok and runs good......there is no apparant crash damage - no bent fins, turns over smoothly.......any ideas about the compression?

It may be still breaking in? If you think not, take the old piston ring out and install new one. Hone the cyl just enough to break the glaze. Most engines will really respond to this...... with a little more clearance and new ring seal they run sometimes at there best. Go easy on replys Thanks Captinjohn