by Mike Busch | Jul 1, 2020 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
…and how you can avoid engine damage and power loss if you know the answer. A stuck exhaust valve caused a bent pushrod and broken pushrod housing on this Lycoming engine. If you fly behind a Continental or Lycoming, each of your engine’s cylinders has two valves,...
by Mike Busch | Jun 1, 2020 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
When it comes to GA crashes, the NTSB doesn’t always get it right, nor does the jury In December of 2012, a father and his son arrived at the airport to pick up the father’s Cessna 421C cabin-class piston twin, which had been in the maintenance shop for months...
by Mike Busch | May 1, 2020 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Condition-based maintenance meets big data and artificial intelligence For the past 20 years, I’ve been preaching the gospel of Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM), the then-revolutionary philosophy of maintenance developed in the 1960s at United Airlines by...
by Mike Busch | Apr 1, 2020 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Is it legal to install uncertified equipment in a certificated aircraft? I receive and answer hundreds of emails each week from aircraft owners, pilots and mechanics who have maintenance-related questions. One I received several weeks ago seems worth sharing: Mike, I...
by Mike Busch | Mar 1, 2020 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Why it’s nearly impossible to install a cylinder properly when the engine is on the airplane. Cylinder replacement is a highly invasive and risky procedure with a long history of causing catastrophic in-flight engine failures that cause airplanes to fall out of the...
