by Mike Busch | May 1, 2017 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Time to topple the venerable compression test? The venerable compression test: past retirement age? The differential compression check has been a mainstay of piston aircraft engine maintenance for the last 80 years. Like anything else in aviation that’s been...
by Mike Busch | Apr 1, 2017 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Do you really need the FAA’s blessing to modify your aircraft? Does this require a field approval? A Bonanza owner wanted to power his portable GPS and his iPad simultaneously in flight, so he asked his avionics shop to install an extra cigar lighter socket on the...
by Mike Busch | Mar 1, 2017 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Thoughts about when to purchase and when to pass. Who among us hasn’t spent hours looking at Trade-A-Plane or Aircraft Shopper Online looking for that perfect low time airplane with a fresh engine overhaul, new paint and interior, great avionics, and a bargain price?...
by Mike Busch | Feb 1, 2017 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Comparing individual aircraft to others of their ilk. Last month, I described some interesting studies my colleagues and I have been doing with “big data” collected from digital engine monitors aboard more than 7,000 airplanes over more than a million flights. We...
by Mike Busch | Jan 1, 2017 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Analyzing data from a million GA flights can yield interesting results. Pilots have long suspected that when it comes to headwinds and tailwinds, the deck is stacked against them. I think the late Bob Blodget, Senior Editor of FLYING Magazine, captured how most...
