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...
by Mike Busch | Feb 1, 2017 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Comparing individual aircraft to others of their ilk. Last month, I described some interesting studies my colleagues and I have been doing with “big data” collected from digital engine monitors aboard more than 7,000 airplanes over more than a million flights. We...
by Joe Godfrey | Jan 19, 2017 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
As we enter our 5th year of Savvy Analysis Pro, we have – as the guy on TV says – seen a thing or two in terms of the Savvy Test Profile. We decided it was time for an update, and I thought this month’s Puzzler would be an ideal time and place to...
by Mike Busch | Jan 1, 2017 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Analyzing data from a million GA flights can yield interesting results. Pilots have long suspected that when it comes to headwinds and tailwinds, the deck is stacked against them. I think the late Bob Blodget, Senior Editor of FLYING Magazine, captured how most...
by Joe Godfrey | Dec 15, 2016 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
Corroboration – evidence that supports a proposition that already has some supporting evidence – is an important component of engine data analysis. Corroboration can come from other data, or from the pilot who submits the analysis request. In analyzing the...
by Mike Busch | Dec 1, 2016 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
If a plane is listed for sale cheap, there’s always a reason. “Hey Mike, this is Danny in Louisiana,” read the email. Danny is one of my clients who used to own a Cirrus SR22 and now flies a Cessna 182 Katmai STOL conversion. “Would you look at this 1965 Cessna 310I...
by Joe Godfrey | Nov 15, 2016 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
I’ll admit stealing the title from Stephen Jay Gould’s work on paleontology. I’m a big fan of his writing and he left us far too soon. So what’s the connection to engine data? It’s a stretch, and it’s not my area of study, but...
