by Mike Busch | Jan 1, 2016 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
When requesting maintenance, the words you use can be very important. The voice on the phone identified himself as a Cessna 182 owner—let’s call him Jim—who said he was considering overhauling his O-470-R engine and could use some advice. I asked Jim why he was...
by Joe Godfrey | Dec 15, 2015 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
First some old business. In the November Puzzler I used data that depicted intermittent and unusual patterns in EGT and CHT 5. I was happy to be able to include two pictures provided by our client — one showing the rocker arm on the engine lined up off-center to...
by Mike Busch | Dec 1, 2015 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
When repairs are covered by insurance, it’s the owner’s job to keep things under control. By the time he contacted me, the aircraft owner—let’s call him Fred—was boiling mad. Fred had bought an airplane last year, and the pre-buy and subsequent annual inspection gave...
by Joe Godfrey | Nov 15, 2015 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
One of the classic lines in Casablanca comes from Claude Rains playing Captain Renault: “Round up the usual suspects.” In engine monitor analysis, when we see an EGT or CHT diverge from normalcy, it’s often the result of a...
by Mike Busch | Nov 1, 2015 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
When pilots screw up, plaintiff lawyers always seem to sue equipment manufacturers. In June 2014, I posted an item to the AOPA Opinion Leaders Blog titled “The Dark Side of Maintenance.” It talked about what I refer to as “maintenance-induced failures” (or “MIFs” for...
by Joe Godfrey | Oct 15, 2015 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
For this Halloween Puzzler I chose three charts. The first was trick-y, and finding the source of the problem was a treat. The next one is a little scary, and the last one is downright spooky. Let’s get started. First up is the Right engine of a Baron...
by Mike Busch | Oct 1, 2015 | AOPA Pilot Magazine, Magazine Articles
Changing competitive landscape in piston GA aircraft and engines. By Mike Busch I just returned from EAA AirVenture 2015 in Oshkosh, where aviation firms traditionally make major announcements. This year was no exception. One of the most significant announcements to...
by Joe Godfrey | Sep 15, 2015 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
For this back-to-school Puzzler I chose two very different scenarios. Let’s apply our analytical skills and see if we can solve them. First up is a normally aspirated SR-22 with a Continental IO-550-N. This is a test profile flight, with a series of GAMI sweeps...
by Mike Busch | Sep 11, 2015 | EAA Sport Aviation Magazine, Magazine Articles
Suppressing the urge to overreact to and overkill problems. The Bonanza owner encountered an engine problem 11 hours after his aircraft came out of annual. He had crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountains VFR at 12,500 feet westbound enroute to the Bay Area, and was...
by Mike Busch | Aug 15, 2015 | EAA Sport Aviation Magazine, Magazine Articles
Cessna gets caught with its hand in the FAA’s cookie jar. On February 10, 2014, the Cessna Aircraft Company did something quite unprecedented in the history of piston GA: It published a revision to the service manual for cantilever-wing Cessna 210-series airplanes...
