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...
by Joe Godfrey | Jan 15, 2022 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
Recently I saw an ad for a furniture store encouraging me to “kickback in style”. I remember hearing that word a lot as a term for relaxation when I moved to southern California in the early 80s. Before moving, I had read that word a lot in the Chicago...
by Mike Busch | Jan 1, 2022 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Low compression doesn’t always require cylinder removal Sam’s 1979 Piper PA-34-200T Seneca II was in the shop, and Sam was not happy. The shop had just done a compression test on the plane’s two Continental TSIO-360-EB3B engines and had given Sam some unwelcome news…...
