Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

1 Answers

Magneto Check Procedure

Asked by: 6084 views
General Aviation

Why are magnetos checked from both to right to both to left to both instead of both to right to left to both?

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

1 Answers



  1. Koehn on Nov 22, 2010

    Actually, you want to go both to left to both to right to both.
    You go back to both in between to verify that the RPMs come back up to normal and to reestablish your baseline. You start with the left mag first so that when you’re done with the right mag you don’t accidentally leave the ignition switch pointing to the right mag instead of both.
    It’s vital that you verify that the tachometer returns to your baseline RPM whenever the switch is set to both, not just that it drops when you turn it to left or right.

    0 Votes Thumb up 1 Votes Thumb down 1 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.