by Mike Busch | Jan 1, 2015 | EAA Sport Aviation Magazine, Magazine Articles
What to look for when choosing an A&P to work on your aircraft. Over the past 45 years, I’ve had the opportunity—and often the privilege—of working with hundreds of aircraft mechanics. At first it was as a naïve aircraft owner having them perform inspections...
by Joe Godfrey | Dec 15, 2014 | SavvyAnalysis Puzzlers
Ronald Reagan used to say “Trust but Verify”. He was talking about Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, but the philosophy works for data from engine data monitors, too. While we sit comfortably in the cockpit scanning the gauges, our data-gathering probes...
by Mike Busch | Dec 1, 2014 | EAA Sport Aviation Magazine, Magazine Articles
If you think CO-related accidents are rare, think again… On January 17, 1997, a Piper Dakota departed Farmingdale, New York, on a planned two-hour VFR flight to Saranac Lake, New York. The pilot was experienced and instrument-rated; his 71-year-old mother, a low-time...
by Mike Busch | Nov 1, 2014 | EAA Sport Aviation Magazine, Magazine Articles
If you’re buying an aircraft, here’s how to structure the prebuy. Over the past six months, my company’s prebuy activity has gone right through the roof. We’ve been responding to 30 to 50 prebuy requests a month, perhaps four times as many as we were seeing a year...
by Mike Busch | Oct 1, 2014 | EAA Sport Aviation Magazine, Magazine Articles
Why are our piston aircraft engines so @#$%*! inefficient? Our piston aircraft engines convert chemical energy into mechanical work, but they don’t do it very efficiently. It turns out that only about one-third of the energy contained in the 100LL we burn winds up...
by Mike Busch | Sep 1, 2014 | EAA Sport Aviation Magazine, Magazine Articles
“To err is human…” but when humans make mistakes working on aircraft, bad things can happen. During the century since the Wright Brothers first flew, the predominant perpetrator in aircraft accidents has shifted dramatically from machine to human. Today, human error...
by Mike Busch | Aug 1, 2014 | EAA Sport Aviation Magazine, Magazine Articles
If your mechanic seems over-cautious and self-protective in his approach to maintaining your airplane, he has good reason. Mechanics have always been subject to FAA sanctions: certificate suspension or revocation, fines, warning notices, letters of correction, and...
by Mike Busch | Jul 1, 2014 | EAA Sport Aviation Magazine, Magazine Articles
How does an IA deal with a situation like this? The maintenance officer of a small flying club asked if my company would be willing to manage the maintenance of the club’s 1976 Cessna 172M. The airplane had been flying about 200 hours a year, and had faced a number of...
by Mike Busch | Jun 1, 2014 | EAA Sport Aviation Magazine, Magazine Articles
It is nearly impossible to install a cylinder properly when the engine is on the airplane. Here’s why. I suppose it comes as no surprise to readers of this column that I’m not exactly a fan of top overhauls. I never like to see any cylinder removed from any piston...
by Mike Busch | May 1, 2014 | EAA Sport Aviation Magazine, Magazine Articles
Why a thorough, independent prebuy examination is so essential, even for a simple 172. The prospective buyer was looking for a Lycoming-powered Cessna 172 Skyhawk, and had a budget of $35,000. He searched online and found one being offered with an asking price in the...
