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...
by Joe Godfrey | Aug 13, 2024 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
We rolled out Savvy’s Borescope Initiative in January. In the ensuing 7 1/2 months users have uploaded over 65,000 images to the repository. If you’re still waiting to participate, or if this is news to you, check out Savvy’s Borescope Initiative....
by Mike Busch | Aug 12, 2024 | EAA Sport Aviation Magazine, Magazine Articles
Can a mechanic who works on your plane refuse to sign it off or put it back together? Boston-based Cirrus owner Mark (not his real name) was flying his turbonormalized SR22 home to Norwood Memorial Airport on what was probably going to be his last flight prior to...
by Joe Godfrey | Jul 11, 2024 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
I’m brushing up my French for an upcoming trip and was reminded that Mayday comes from M’Aidez – Help Me. When I started flying in the ’70s the conventional wisdom from the old timers was “whatever you do don’t declare an...
by Joe Godfrey | Jun 9, 2024 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
If an engine monitor probe or sensor is going to fail, would you rather have it just fail and be done with it, or have it be reliable some of the time and distracting some of the time? Neither has much appeal, but at least with the failure, you can skip the detective...
by Mike Busch | Jun 6, 2024 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Recently, a client with an older Cessna 182 Skylane reported that his nose landing gear strut was leaking fluid and repeatedly going flat. Inspection revealed that the original chrome strut piston had become badly pitted and was tearing up the nose strut seals. The...
by Mike Busch | Jun 1, 2024 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
My company manages a lot of prebuys. At any given point in time, we typically have a dozen of them in progress. We’ve managed thousands of them over the years, and seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. Most of the time, the aircraft turn out to be in decent shape and...
by Joe Godfrey | May 16, 2024 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
Hockey playoffs are in full swing. It’s usually about this time of the year that I rewatch my favorite hockey movie “Miracle”, about the 1980 Olympics. So many great performances, including fellow pilot Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks, but none better...
