by Joe Godfrey | Feb 18, 2023 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
As Savvy Analysis turns ten, I thought I would try and see if the data shows that more engine monitors and more data analysis over the last ten years contributed to fewer accidents attributed to mechanical failure. You would think so, right? Engine data should make it...
by Mike Busch | Feb 1, 2023 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
How far does your IA have to go to verify that your aircraft is airworthy? The subject line of the email got my attention: “Annual gone wrong…please help!” The author—let’s call him Morrie—identified himself as a first-time airplane owner. “I have my Citabria in for...
by Joe Godfrey | Jan 20, 2023 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
When we started Savvy Analysis Pro ten years ago, we wondered how long it would take before deep learning and artificial intelligence would take over and push the human analysts to the curb. In those ten years, we’ve rolled out Report Cards, Trend Analysis,...
by Mike Busch | Jan 18, 2023 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Don’t use exhaust gas temperature as a leaning reference I respond to at least 100 queries from aircraft owners and pilots each week. At least a dozen of those are questions or requests for advice about leaning, and most of them relate to EGT. A few common ones: Q: My...
by Joe Godfrey | Dec 19, 2022 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
Chapter 6 of the AIM covers emergency procedures, including the difference between distress – like fire, mechanical failure, oil on the windscreen, or structural damage – and urgency – like being lost, low on gas, encountering dangerous weather, or...
by Mike Busch | Dec 1, 2022 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Situational awareness requires being aware of your aircraft’s systems, too. On Saturday, August 26, 2022, a young CFI took off from Monterey, California in a Cessna 172 on a “Discovery Flight.” His passengers were a young couple, with the man occupying the left front...
by Joe Godfrey | Nov 14, 2022 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
Good news! They’re making Spinal Tap 2, with plans to release it in 2024 – 40 years after the first one. Of all the great quotable lines in ST1, it’s hard to top “these go to eleven”. Sometimes we get a set of screwy engine data that...
by Mike Busch | Nov 1, 2022 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Using AI and deep learning to detect anomalous engine monitor data Nowadays more than half of the piston GA fleet is equipped with some sort of recording digital engine monitor. Older ones tend to be fairly primitive and record just EGTs and CHTs and not much else....
by Joe Godfrey | Oct 15, 2022 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
A lot of analysis requests begin with “Something bad just happened and we had to divert and land. Is there something in the data that would’ve told us this was about to happen?” Our first reaction is usually relief – that the pilot got on the ground...
by Mike Busch | Oct 1, 2022 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Dealing with mechanicals away from home base. Every aircraft owner dreads a mechanical breakdown while away from home on a trip. In the five and a half decades that I have owned an aircraft—I bought my first plane in 1968 and have always flown lots of long trips—I’ve...
