by Mike Busch | Jul 1, 2017 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
What “stuff” do you carry in your airplane? It’s a well-known fact: Most mechanical problems occur between Friday night and Sunday afternoon when you’re hundreds of miles from home base. The difference between a minor annoyance and a major travel...
by Joe Godfrey | Jun 15, 2017 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
One of the first steps of engine data analysis is evaluating the reliability of the data. In recent Puzzlers we’ve seen probes that didn’t fail spectacularly, they just kept sending data that was almost believable, and could – if you saw it in...
by Mike Busch | Jun 1, 2017 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Compared to Lycocontisauruses, the Rotax 912 is delightfully different. The past 20 years may well have yielded more outside-the-box ideas than any other comparable period in history. The iPod redefined the music industry in 2001. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter...
by Joe Godfrey | May 19, 2017 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
Flying is full of great and memorable sounds. I’ll never forget how quiet the cockpit was after lifting off for my first solo – compared to hours of hearing my CFI issue verbal corrections or way-to-gos. It was just the engine and the air. I can...
by Mike Busch | May 1, 2017 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Time to topple the venerable compression test? The venerable compression test: past retirement age? The differential compression check has been a mainstay of piston aircraft engine maintenance for the last 80 years. Like anything else in aviation that’s been...
by Joe Godfrey | Apr 18, 2017 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
If there were a TV show where I could watch A&Ps, or just plain owners, swinging wrenches on airplanes, I’d probably watch. I’d at least give it a look. Ice Pilots and Flying Wild Alaska and Airplane Repo tend more toward the challenges of...
by Mike Busch | Apr 1, 2017 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Do you really need the FAA’s blessing to modify your aircraft? Does this require a field approval? A Bonanza owner wanted to power his portable GPS and his iPad simultaneously in flight, so he asked his avionics shop to install an extra cigar lighter socket on the...
by Joe Godfrey | Mar 17, 2017 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
How can rational numbers be so irrational? Actually, upon examination what we discover is that there’s usually a perfectly logical explanation for why an engine parameter is displaying its pattern. Even the impossible jumps from a failing probe have a logical...
by Mike Busch | Mar 1, 2017 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Thoughts about when to purchase and when to pass. Who among us hasn’t spent hours looking at Trade-A-Plane or Aircraft Shopper Online looking for that perfect low time airplane with a fresh engine overhaul, new paint and interior, great avionics, and a bargain price?...
by Joe Godfrey | Feb 19, 2017 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
Someone sent me a link this week for a video of a controlled blast triggering an avalanche. That started me thinking about some of my favorite cinematic explosions: Denzel Washington blowing up an oil tanker in “The Equalizer”, Jeremy Renner’s...
