AOPA Pilot Magazine

Magazine Articles
SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
Savvy Stories
VIEW FULL LIST OF ARTICLES

GA Engine Summit 2017

by | December 1, 2017 | ,

Industry and the FAA meet to discuss GA piston engine issues In mid-September 2017, I was invited to participate in a two-day “GA Engine Summit” meeting in Burlington, Massachusetts—about 30 minutes’ drive northwest of Boston. This meeting was a long-awaited...

By The Book?

by | September 1, 2017 | ,

Must manufacturer’s maintenance guidance be followed? Have you ever had your mechanic tell you something like this: “It has been six years since your propeller was last overhauled, so we’re going to have to overhaul it this year as required...

Back In The Game

by | August 1, 2017 | ,

The first flight after maintenance is special. My client wanted to buy a Bonanza A36, and narrowed his search to two promising candidates. One had recently suffered a “forgot to remove the tow bar” prop strike, necessitating an engine teardown...

Traveling Toolkit

by | July 1, 2017 | ,

What “stuff” do you carry in your airplane? It’s a well-known fact: Most mechanical problems occur between Friday night and Sunday afternoon when you’re hundreds of miles from home base. The difference between a minor annoyance and a major travel...

Outside the Box

by | June 1, 2017 | ,

Compared to Lycocontisauruses, the Rotax 912 is delightfully different.  The past 20 years may well have yielded more outside-the-box ideas than any other comparable period in history. The iPod redefined the music industry in 2001. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter (2004–2006)...

Borescope Ascendancy

by | May 1, 2017 | ,

Time to topple the venerable compression test? 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 around for a long time, various Old Wives’...

Field Approvals

by | April 1, 2017 | ,

Do you really need the FAA’s blessing to modify your aircraft? 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...

Buy…or Walk Away?

by | March 1, 2017 | ,

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,...

Buyer Beware

by | December 1, 2016 | ,

If a plane is listed for sale cheap, there’s always a reason. “Hey Mike, this is Danny in Louisiana,” read the email. Danny is one of my clients who used to own a Cirrus SR22 and now flies a Cessna...

Stuck in Reykjavik

by | November 1, 2016 | ,

When the pilot of a round-the-world flight found himself AOG in Iceland with electrical issues, remote diagnosis saved the day. Ademilola “Lola” Odujinrin has a passion for aviation. He’s 37 years old, resides in Nigeria with his wife and two...

Whom Should You Trust?

by | August 1, 2016 | ,

Before following expert advice, choose your expert with care.  We aviators are of necessity a trusting lot. We constantly trust other people with our lives, our safety, and our financial wellbeing. We trust nameless and faceless air traffic controllers to...

Fear and Balderdash

by | February 1, 2016 | ,

Maintenance decisions need to be fact- and evidence-based. The current owner of the vintage J-model Bonanza emailed me for advice. He’d purchased the airplane just four months earlier with a fresh annual inspection, and was already stressing out about what...

Watch Your Language!

by | January 1, 2016 | ,

When requesting maintenance, the words you use can be very important. The voice on the phone identified himself as a Cessna 182 owner—let’s call him Jim—who said he was considering overhauling his O-470-R engine and could use some advice. I...
Load More