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Fresh Annual

by | August 1, 2020 | ,

Why it’s no substitute for a proper independent prebuy. Every month I receive hundreds of emails from aircraft owners seeking advice or assistance. For the most part, I genuinely enjoy these interactions and the opportunity to help fellow aircraft owners. ...

Justice Denied?

by | June 1, 2020 | ,

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,...

Predictive Maintenance

by | May 1, 2020 | ,

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 aeronautical engineer Stanley Nowlan and...

Hot Seat

by | April 1, 2020 | ,

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,...

Risky Business

by | March 1, 2020 | ,

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...

Shear Joints

by | February 1, 2020 | ,

When using fasteners loaded in shear, things can get interesting. Last month, I wrote about joints involving threaded fasteners loaded in tension—that is, along the bolt’s longitudinal axis. Such “tension joints” are used to fasten connecting rods to crankshafts, cylinders...

Tense Bolts

by | January 1, 2020 | ,

When using threaded fasteners in tension, it’s all about the preload. Threaded fasteners are ubiquitous in aviation. Look at any GA aircraft and you’ll find hundreds of them if not thousands. They attach wings to the fuselage, cylinders to the...

Hostage Situation

by | December 1, 2019 | ,

Don’t fall victim to an overzealous mechanic. Mark is the owner of a beautiful Cessna 185 Skywagon based in the San Francisco Bay area. Awhile back, Mark and his wife travelled to Minden, Nevada in this airplane to visit with...

Evicted

by | November 1, 2019 | ,

Thoughts about being temporarily booted out of my hangar. From the time I first acquired my Cessna 310 in 1987, it has been hangered at Santa Maria Public Airport. Initially, I kept it in a large community hangar. Then in...

Double Standard?

by | August 1, 2019 | ,

Why aren’t A&Ps trained as well as pilots are? I never really wanted to become an A&P. All I really wanted was to be able to maintain my own airplane without adult supervision.  Heck, I’d been doing virtually all the...

I Wanna Sue!

by | July 1, 2019 | ,

When things go awry in the sky, litigation isn’t necessarily the best remedy. My email inbox contained a message with the subject “Legal Question – Advice Needed.” That didn’t surprise me because although I’m not a lawyer, I do regularly...

A Matter of Policy

by | June 1, 2019 | ,

Understanding aircraft insurance If you own an aircraft, you probably have aircraft insurance. Whether it’s the right amount of the right coverages is worth exploring. Here’s what I’ve learned in my 50+ years of aircraft ownership plus extensive discussions with...

Rush to Judgment

by | May 1, 2019 | ,

Before doing something expensive or invasive, slow down “My Cirrus SR22’s oil pressure has been slowly decreasing,” reported Oliver, one of my company’s managed maintenance clients. “At full power the pressure used to be 41-43 PSI, but over the past...

Powerplant Resurrection

by | March 1, 2019 | ,

Reviving an engine that has been inactive for months or years Piston aircraft engines hate to sit unflown. During lengthy periods of disuse, the protective oil film strips off critical surfaces like cylinder walls, cam lobes and tappet faces, exposing...

Breaking Good

by | January 1, 2019 | ,

Taking the complexity out of cylinder break-in From time to time, every piston aircraft owner faces the question of how best to break-in new cylinders. Sometimes this involves just one or two newly-replaced cylinders, other times all cylinders have been...

Just Inspect It, Please

by | December 1, 2018 | ,

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...
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