by Joe Godfrey | Jun 18, 2022 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
I’m not spoiling the movie if I tell you that one of the opening scenes of Top Gun: Maverick is a pilot swinging a wrench on an owner-flown piston-powered warbird. That may be enough to make you want to see it, although from the box office numbers so far they...
by Mike Busch | Jun 1, 2022 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
This Skyhawk’s Lycoming had a 2,000-hour TBO, but it lasted a bit longer—3,000 hours longer to be exact. What follows is true, though the names have been changed… It was 2011 and Unruly Flyers had a problem. This 14-member Midwest flying dlub’s only aircraft—a 1997...
by Joe Godfrey | May 17, 2022 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
The Greek poet Archilochus wrote, “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” I’m reminded of this when clients ask “Which engine monitor should I buy?” Savvy doesn’t endorse brands or product models, so...
by Mike Busch | May 1, 2022 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Is the conventional wisdom wrong about why exhaust valves burn? Piston aircraft engines have an awful lot of moving parts. Way too many, if you ask me. The thought of thousands of separate metal parts reciprocating, rotating, wiggling, wobbling, and rubbing against...
by Joe Godfrey | Apr 16, 2022 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
When you’re flying and inadvertently run a tank dry, or the cabin door pops open, or you smell smoke, or any similar unexpected threat, the part of your brain that listened to your CFI — train like you fly and fly like you train — goes to work. Your...
by Mike Busch | Apr 1, 2022 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
“You snooze, you lose” or “caveat emptor”? The market for used GA airplanes is crazy right now. In the five decades I’ve been paying attention to such things, I’ve never seen anything like it. Other GA industry veterans I’ve spoken with all tell me the same thing....
by Joe Godfrey | Mar 12, 2022 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
We’ve seen an increase in issues related to induction lately. Is it because many airplanes spent more time grounded because of the virus, and issues are emerging as the hibernation is ending? Or maybe it’s just that for most of our US-based clients,...
by Mike Busch | Mar 1, 2022 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
You can learn a lot from your airplane’s report card Jack owns a 2016 Cirrus SR22 with a Garmin Perspective glass cockpit—basically a G1000 on steroids. His MFD records tons of data on an SD card—CHTs, EGTs, oil pressure and temperature, MAP, RPM, fuel flow, altitude,...
by Joe Godfrey | Feb 9, 2022 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
Are you playing Wordle? It’s fascinating to me how this puzzle has caught on as we look for distractions from that other 5-letter word that begins with C and ends with D and has two non-adjacent vowels. What has this got to do with analysis? Well, sometimes...
by Mike Busch | Feb 1, 2022 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Does your engine REALLY need to be euthanized? “I’m in trouble. Can you help?” The owner of the vintage Mooney was obviously stressed. He identified himself as a highly experienced military pilot but a first-time aircraft owner who’d recently flown his airplane...
