Just Inspect It, Please

Mechanics should never make repairs without owner approval The co-owner of a Beechcraft Bonanza emailed me that his airplane had been inspected and maintained by a trusted mechanic at his home field in California until this year, when the mechanic retired. Forced to...

Post-Maintenance Checklist

What to do when you pick up your aircraft from the shop My company employs 14 A&P mechanics, 11 of whom are very seasoned IAs with decades of GA maintenance experience. The other day, one of them was asked by a client what he should look for during the preflight...

Operating Oversquare

The myriad benefits of high manifold pressure and low RPM I bought my first airplane at age 24 shortly after I relocated from New York to California. It was a brand new 1968 Cessna 182 Skylane that I picked up at the Cessna delivery center in Wichita, and flew home to...

Turbo Failures

They can be deadly if the pilot hasn’t been taught what to do The release of my book Mike Busch on Engines prompted lots of reader correspondence. One particularly interesting email came from the owner of a 2007 Cessna Turbo Stationair (T210H)—I’ll call him...

Piston Powerplant Progress

It has been a lot like watching paint dry I recently completed work on my second book, a 500-page monster titled Mike Busch on Engines (available on Amazon). It was a yearlong effort that involved reviewing hundreds of my past articles about piston aircraft engines,...