My favorite aeronautical steed, Centurion N7591N, has been my bird for 24 years. I have loved every minute of it. I’ve flown coast to coast, sailed over a thunderstorm at 27,000 feet; raced from Omaha to near Boston in four hours, and flopped into a grass strip in a thousand feet. One would be hard-pressed to find a more reliable, versatile or capable wingman. But 24 years is a long time. Oil consumption was creeping up. Compressions drifted down. Take-off rolls stretched longer. Cruise speeds faded slower. A couple of years ago the mighty Continental’s TBO came and went. I could see the end was near. The only question was, would I pull the trigger or would the engine pull it for me?
