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...
by Joe Godfrey | Oct 19, 2019 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
Last month I said I would write about this so let’s end the suspense. I’ve been saving data for well over a year. I noticed this pattern before that, but started saving examples in mid 2018. So what is it? In the spirit of good Puzzling, I’ll provide...
by Mike Busch | Oct 1, 2019 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
What may you do to your aircraft without A&P involvement? More than you might think. The FAA defines who may perform maintenance on certificated aircraft in FAR 43.3. This rule lists all the usual certificated suspects: mechanics, repair stations, air carriers,...
by Joe Godfrey | Sep 16, 2019 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
It’s that time in the baseball season when teams calculate their magic number – the combination of their wins and losses by others that will clinch the pennant. Computer programmers use the term for something unrelated to baseball. Either way, it seems...
by Mike Busch | Sep 1, 2019 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
The Friendlies are remarkably friendly to Part 91 folks Aircraft owners and pilots love to bash the FAA. We grumble and whine about all the labyrinthine regulations and requirements the Agency burdens us with, and how much it increases our complexity and cost of...
by Joe Godfrey | Aug 17, 2019 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
When it comes to troubleshooting issues with an aircraft engine, it’s probably safe to say that any engine data is better than no data at all. Data from cruise flights can tell us about the airplane’s normal operations, and when we have enough data from an...
