Since gaining my PPL last year and reading this forum I’ve found myself more interested in the goings on “under the bonnet” and would like some further reading apart from the usual aircraft general knowledge text book I read when studying for my AGK exam.
I check in with this part of the forum every now and then but quickly find myself out of my depth. Can anyone recommend a good book to read to (gradually) expand my horizons? At the moment I’m not too technically minded so something that’s fairly simple and with diagrams etc would be preferable.
Hi there NinerEchoPapa – sorry, no reading recommendations for you: there’s lots of printed stuff available, and even more on the Internet, of course. Sounds like I’m pretty much in the same position as you – not too technically minded, but keen and willing to learn. What helped hugely in my case, was actually taking a look under the bonnet myself – accompanied by someone with the time and patience to explain the nuts and bolts to me. Can you offer to give someone a hand with an oil change, for example, or a 50-hour maintenance check? I have an experimental aircraft (Lancair 320), so I realise the regs may not allow you to just whip off the cowling, but there’s nothing like actually seeing where all the cables, pipes and lines go. I like to visually trace things around the engine – it’s satisfying to understand things (better, if not totally) and there are plenty of aha moments 
Here are the free bibles on airframes and powerplants.
Then, if you are particularly into piston engines, read all the stuff from John Deakin. This obviously focusses more on operations than on maintenance itself, but is also more interesting to read. All the Mike Busch stuff is here.
Removing cowlings and other inspection panels is well within pilot privileges btw. And participation in the 50hr checks is a great learning tool
This is another great advantage of freelance maintenance. Most companies don’t want the customer around. OTOH some customers will really slow down the work…
@NinerEchoPapa the best thing you can do is to ask a maintenance engineer or a company whether you can watch when they do a service on a plane. As I say above it may not be easy but it is the best way.
I have never seen good GA books – I think this is because on the certified scene almost nobody does their own work (especially in Europe where maintenance rights are pretty tight) and on the uncertified scene most of the people are the tinkering type who already know how to do it (otherwise they would have not bought a homebuilt) or they are in a position where they can get someone to do it for them, or help them (it’s more of a community there).
The stuff under the cowlings is pretty basic – my lawn mower is probably more complicated and is definitely less serviceable!
I have just got back from Day 1 of the full TKS installation. You sure get to know your plane when you do this, but you also need to – or somebody needs to. It’s much bigger than any aircraft service.
Also remember there are no dumb questions to ask here It is true that a lot of the discussions here get pretty complex. Some confuse the hell out of me, for sure. But there are no dumb questions and plenty of people here will help with simpler stuff too.
