by Joe Godfrey | Jan 15, 2025 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
It’s a January tradition to restate the mission of these Puzzlers. Our goal is to help pilots recognize data anomalies in real time to make good decisions about the safety of the flight, and help owners to make informed maintenance decisions. Last January Savvy began...
by Mike Busch | Dec 12, 2024 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Who is allowed to perform maintenance on a certificated aircraft? The FAA rule that answers that question is 14 CFR 43.3—Persons authorized to perform maintenance, preventive maintenance, rebuilding, and alterations. This rule authorizes repair stations, A&P...
by Joe Godfrey | Dec 12, 2024 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
The Wright Brothers were the first to fly on this date in 1903. Growing up in southwest Ohio, we didn’t give a lot of credence to those floating other versions of history. It was Orville and Wilbur at Kitty Hawk on December 17. Full stop. While we’re at...
by Mike Busch | Nov 14, 2024 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Rethinking the business model for maintenance of GA aircraft. For more than a decade, my primary care physician was Dr. F. She was a wonderful doctor with a deep understanding of internal medicine and superb people skills who cared deeply for her patients. I felt...
by Joe Godfrey | Nov 14, 2024 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
Recently, one of our clients upgraded his JPI 700 to a Garmin G3X. Our tech specialist Kurt changed the account configuration so the new data will use the correct parser. In his note to the client, Kurt said “you’ll now have a dizzying array of data...
by Mike Busch | Oct 17, 2024 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
The Perils of Trying to Fix a Problem You Haven’t Seen For Yourself The phrase “trust but verify” was made famous by U.S. President Ronald Reagan in December 1987 after the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Mikhail Gorbachev. The...
by Joe Godfrey | Oct 16, 2024 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
Is there a mirror image for Occam’s Razor? Seems like if we have a name for relying on the least complex explanation for a scenario, then we ought to have one for the most outlandish, unlikely, logic-defying explanation. For instance, recently we got engine data...
by Mike Busch | Oct 15, 2024 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
When his Skylane’s engine monitor readings went crazy-high, Frank called Savvy’s 24/7 breakdown assistance hotline for help. “I just flew my Cessna 182 from Kansas City to St. Louis to drop off a passenger there,” Frank Annecchini told the Savvy Breakdown Assistance...
by Joe Godfrey | Sep 18, 2024 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
When we started our engine data analysis service in 2014, I wondered if we would see seasonal patterns in the data. For instance, would we see more probe failures in the heat of the summer? Would we see more stuck valves in the colder months? Would we see more...
by Mike Busch | Sep 17, 2024 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
The big boys don’t do them—why must we? Given today’s acute shortage of GA mechanics and the difficulty owners are having getting their airplanes on shop schedules, I’ve been receiving an increasing number of inquiries about the need for annual inspections from...
