by Mike Busch | Aug 1, 2022 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Optimal flying in a world of expensive avgas. With fuel prices at all-time highs, it’s more important than ever for pilots of GA airplanes to fly in a fuel-efficient fashion. I am especially sensitive to this issue because I fly a piston twin that guzzles 30 GPH and...
by Mike Busch | Jul 5, 2022 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
The best maintenance shops often warrant the closest owner oversight. I’m frequently asked by aircraft owners to recommend good maintenance shops in a particular area, and my company maintains a large database of maintenance resources to facilitate such referrals....
by Mike Busch | Jul 1, 2022 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Out-of-control annual inspections are painful—and avoidable. I received a heart-wrenching email from the owner of a Southern California flight school—I’ll call him Chuck—who operates 10 airplanes, mostly Cessna 172s and Piper Archers and Arrows, with a Seneca twin and...
by Mike Busch | Jun 1, 2022 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
This Skyhawk’s Lycoming had a 2,000-hour TBO, but it lasted a bit longer—3,000 hours longer to be exact. What follows is true, though the names have been changed… It was 2011 and Unruly Flyers had a problem. This 14-member Midwest flying dlub’s only aircraft—a 1997...
by Mike Busch | May 1, 2022 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Is the conventional wisdom wrong about why exhaust valves burn? Piston aircraft engines have an awful lot of moving parts. Way too many, if you ask me. The thought of thousands of separate metal parts reciprocating, rotating, wiggling, wobbling, and rubbing against...
