Looking for Trouble

When the analysis team started looking at engine data about 10 years ago, we could confidently recognize the patterns for clogged injectors, spark plug misfires and detonation events. Other patterns, like broken valve springs and induction leaks, came later. Last...

The Best Laid Plans…

Scottish poet Robert Burns wasn’t a pilot – but his words are good advice for flight planning. This Puzzler is about anomalies that happened in flight. 14 CFR 91.103 directs pilots to become familiar with all available information concerning a planned flight prior to...

The Perry Mason Moment

I was channel surfing recently and landed on a Perry Mason rerun. First of all, it’s one of the great TV themes of all time. Hats off to Fred Steiner. Private Detective Paul Drake just oozes cool with his wild sport coats and convertible sports cars. Della Street was...

Provocation

It’s a logical question. You see something abnormal in the data and you wonder if your powerplant management triggered or provoked what happened. I’d say about a third of the tickets I work include some form of the question. Another popular question is...

MacGyver

I never watched MacGyver. It’s not like I watched it once and thought it was junk and never went back. I just never watched it. It must’ve been on when I was busy doing something else. But I think it’s cool that his name has entered the...