Untold Riches
The flip side of a cylinder running too lean is one that runs too rich. If it’s too lean the usual suspect is an injector clog for those with injectors or an induction leak for carbureted engines. When it’s too...
SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
Every month, Joe Godfrey, Savvy’s chief data analyst, presents captivating aviation “puzzlers” derived from real-life engine monitor data on the SavvyAnalysis platform, guiding pilots in identifying anomalies for real-time safety decisions and assisting owners in informed maintenance choices.
De Masterbus Non Est Disputandum – Validating the Data
Yep, I’m angling for the award for best mis-appropriation of a Latin maxim. The real phrase – de gustibus… – translates literally to “regarding tastes, it should not be disputed” which in common usage has become “there’s no accounting for...
The Seebeck Effect
The Estonian physicist Thomas Johann Seebeck died a couple of generations before the Wright Brothers demonstrated powered flight. Each December I remember to thank the brothers from Dayton for their courage and persistence that eventually led to the gift of...
Scramble
Some words just mean what they mean and that’s all you get. Some words give you options. Scramble can be a verb or a noun. It can mean to order fighter jets into the air immediately, or a way to...
The Usual Suspects – But Only on Cirruses
Last month I said I would write about this so let’s end the suspense. I’ve been saving data for well over a year. I noticed this pattern before that, but started saving examples in mid 2018. So what is it?...
Magic Numbers
It’s that time in the baseball season when teams calculate their magic number – the combination of their wins and losses by others that will clinch the pennant. Computer programmers use the term for something unrelated to baseball. Either way,...
Savvy Test Profile Common Errors
When it comes to troubleshooting issues with an aircraft engine, it’s probably safe to say that any engine data is better than no data at all. Data from cruise flights can tell us about the airplane’s normal operations, and when...
Bang for Your Buck III
I have written about this before, but not in two years, and with lots of new clients and a couple of new Savvy services in that time, it seemed like a good time for a biennial review. The comedians are...
The Volatility Index
The US stock market volatility index is sometimes called the fear index. Usually when the VIX is spiking to new highs, investors are bailing out and other indexes are tumbling. We had one of these events last last year –...
The Rio Grande
I grew up in a river town – Cincinnati – then moved to a lake town – Chicago – and then to an ocean town – Encinitas, CA just north of San Diego. I just started listening to David McCullough’s...
Don’t Give Up Your Day Gig
These days it’s call throwing shade. When I came up, good jazz musicians had a nice-but-direct way of telling wanna be jazz musicians that they weren’t up to the task – “don’t give up your day gig.” Dr. Graeme Smart...
Unable to Replicate
I have been flying my Bellanca Viking for 29 years now. I have had two unexplained events – one electrical and one combustion – both in day VMC. I was alone for both. The electrical event was on approach to...
No Regerts
Phoebe Snow’s recording of “No Regrets” is on one of my playlists, and I can’t hear the song without thinking of the Milky Way ad where the distracted tattoo artist gives her customer something to – uh, regert. Sometimes engine...
Worst. Distribution. Ever.
They say what goes around comes around. As the new year arrived and I began my 5th year of writing these Puzzlers, I wondered what I could do to keep things interesting and informative. You the reader and I, acting...
Zero Zero Tolerance
If zero tolerance means we won’t tolerate anything but a zero, then I guess zero zero tolerance means we won’t tolerate any zeros. Usually a zero on an engine data monitor isn’t a good thing unless it has an integer...
FIKI – Flight Into Known Imprecision
In most of the Northern Hemisphere it’s the time of year to think about icing. If your airplane is certified and equipped for FIKI – flight into known icing – an encounter with ice isn’t the emergency that it is...
Bingo
I never had the guts to do it, but I sure thought about it more than once. Maybe you’ve done it or thought about it. You know – you’re in a mandatory meeting about some new company policy or initiative...
The Outer Limits
Sometimes when I see something odd in real-time engine data during a flight, I can almost hear the voice of Vic Perrin saying “There is nothing wrong with your TV set. We are controlling transmission. We will control the numbers...
Dog Days – Savvy Analysis Puzzler August 2018
The Farmer’s Almanac says that the phrase Dog Days wasn’t originally about canines panting in the heat, it was about the appearance of Sirius the Dog Star and its reminder to ancient Egyptians about the annual flooding of the Nile....
Power Cables, Icicles and a Bullet
When guitar strings break there’s no lingering doubt. When an old-style incandescent light bulb fails you might get a bright flash before the darkness, or maybe just the darkness. Either way, no doubt. These are instant, unconditional failures. Then there are...
The Zeigarnik Effect
Okay I’ll admit it. The first time someone showed me the selective attention video – the one where the gorilla walks through the teams passing basketballs – the setup was that there was a really nice prize if you could...
Remembering Richard L. Collins
Last October I mentioned Eastern Airlines flight 401, which crashed into the Everglades in 1972 because all three crew members were fixated on a failed landing light. I first read about the importance of that flight, and so many others,...
Two Factor Authentication
Strong passwords, frequently changed passwords, biometric scans and two factor authentication are some of the technologies developed to keep information accessible to those who should have it, and away from those who shouldn’t. Every time I have to track down...
March Madness
I just filled out my bracket for this month’s college basketball tournament. If you live outside the US, or you don’t follow sports, it’s an annual ritual where American sports fans try and guess which of 64 teams will win...