by Joe Godfrey | Feb 16, 2018 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
Sometimes the data that I gather to write about has an obvious theme. Sometimes I sort of manhandle them into a common theme. This month, it’s more of a collection of independent cases. First up is data from a Cirrus SR22 with a Continental IO-550-N and data...
by Mike Busch | Feb 1, 2018 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
How we coax metal aircraft parts into doing what must be done Metal is neat stuff. It’s strong, hard, and tough. It’s easy to form, work, shape and machine. It’s fireproof and can stand up to high temperatures. But these properties aren’t unique to metal. ...
by Joe Godfrey | Jan 21, 2018 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
One of the most famous and inspirational sayings in aviation and aerospace is “failure is not an option.” If you like the Ron Howard movie Apollo 13, chances are you’d like the book – or the Audible version – about the American space...
by Mike Busch | Jan 1, 2018 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
When aircraft problems occur, we always want an explanation but don’t always get one I receive thousands of emails from aircraft owners each year, but this one was unusual. It was nearly 3,000 words long—twice the length of this article. The 7,500-hour CFI who wrote...
by developer | Dec 14, 2017 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
by Paul Kortopates One of the more common turbo problems we see are erratic fluctuations in MAP. Below is a plot of MAP (the red trace) & Altitude (the yellow trace) of a Cirrus. Although the data is a bit coarse with a 6 sec data sampling rate, when zoomed in we...
by Mike Busch | Dec 1, 2017 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Industry and the FAA meet to discuss GA piston engine issues In mid-September 2017, I was invited to participate in a two-day “GA Engine Summit” meeting in Burlington, Massachusetts—about 30 minutes’ drive northwest of Boston. This meeting was a long-awaited sequel to...
by Joe Godfrey | Nov 18, 2017 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
In math, a conjecture is a statement you believe to be true based on observations. That sounds like something you could trust and act on. Webster’s says it’s an inference formed without proof or sufficient evidence. That sounds like conclusion jumping that...
by Mike Busch | Nov 1, 2017 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Can a mechanic hold an aircraft hostage? Or just part of it? The mechanic who phoned me sounded agitated. He explained that he’d been an A&P for quite a while, but had earned his IA recently and was relatively new to the business of doing annual inspections. An...
by Joe Godfrey | Oct 21, 2017 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
NTSB concluded that Eastern flight 401 crashed into the Everglades in 1972 because all three crew members were fixated on a failed landing light. The lemonade was aviation’s adoption of CRM. As valuable as trustworthy engine data can be for the success of a...
by Mike Busch | Oct 1, 2017 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Thanks to teamwork, tens of thousands of aircraft owners dodged a devastating bullet As I write this, the aviation blogosphere and Twitterverse are abuzz over the near-disaster at San Francisco International Airport, when an arriving Air Canada A320 on a night visual...
