by Joe Godfrey | Mar 6, 2020 | Uncategorized
by Mike Busch | Mar 1, 2020 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
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 out of the...
by Joe Godfrey | Feb 5, 2020 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
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 rich it’s often because of something...
by Mike Busch | Feb 1, 2020 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
When using fasteners loaded in shear, things can get interesting. The wing of the B-17 is attached to the fuselage by three bolted shear joints. Last month, I wrote about joints involving threaded fasteners loaded in tension—that is, along the bolt’s longitudinal...
by Joe Godfrey | Jan 15, 2020 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
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...
by Mike Busch | Jan 1, 2020 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
When using threaded fasteners in tension, it’s all about the preload. Tightening a cylinder hold-down nut is an extraordinarily critical task. Failure to do it exactly right can result in catastrophic engine failure. Threaded fasteners are ubiquitous in aviation. Look...
by Joe Godfrey | Dec 14, 2019 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
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 aviation...
by Mike Busch | Dec 1, 2019 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
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 Mark’s mother-in-law who was ill. A few...
by Joe Godfrey | Nov 16, 2019 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
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 cook eggs, or a disordered mixture of things. When we confuse or...
by Mike Busch | Nov 1, 2019 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
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 2003, after a long wait on the airport hangar...
