Ownership

This article originally appeared in the February 2001 issue of Light Plane Maintenance, and is reprinted here by permission. The day has come. It’s finally time to overhaul that engine. Or maybe it’s just a top overhaul. Either way, it’s a not-so-often event and there’s slight fear and a little anxiety.There is no shortage of […]

As mentioned in the May 2003 issue of Light Plane Maintenance, AVweb has obtained a PowerPoint presentation created by Advanced Pilot Seminars to describe the leaning procedure they teach in their classes.To view the presentation, click on the following link, and the presentation will either open in its own browser window, or you will be […]

This article originally appeared in the November 2001 issue of Light Plane Maintenance, and is reprinted here by permission. First, we want you to understand that timing magnetos doesn’t fall under the heading of “preventive maintenance.” For certificated aircraft, this is A&P country — especially if the magnetos are to be removed from the engine.However, […]

I‘ve been a fan of Garmin‘s GPSs ever since I spent several hundred hours teaching people how to fly the Cirrus SR20 and SR22, which have dual Garmin GPSs as standard equipment. But I learned early on that having a super-charged piece of avionics is not all peaches and cream. There’s a steep learning curve, […]

No doubt about it, pilots are a special breed.And after a day of reading accident reports — which I do without fail at least once a month — I sometimes suffer from the impression that they’re highly motivated, well-trained, steely-eyed idiots. I’ll concede that this is a cynical, over-the-top generalization but when you read about […]

This article originally appeared in the June 2002 issue of Light Plane Maintenance, and is reprinted here by permission. One of the biggest recurring headaches for the light aircraft owner and mechanic is that of exhaust manifold leaks. With the majority of aircraft in the general aviation fleet exceeding 30 years old, problems with exhaust […]

Increased security, increased perception of risk, increased litigation — the aviation insurance industry has had a lot of challenges recently, and most of us have seen the effects of those challenges when we paid our severely increased insurance premiums. But those premiums are for hull and liability (and sometimes medical) insurance — what about life […]

Who was John Boyd? Ask any pilot and you will probably get a shoulder shrug or just a blank stare. Hang around with some fighter pilots and ask, “Anyone ever heard of ’40-Second Boyd’?” and the response will likely be the same, a shrug. Follow up with a second question, “What do you know about […]

This article originally appeared in the June 2002 issue of Light Plane Maintenance, and is reprinted here by permission. Oil temp running too high? Troubleshooting the problem isn’t very difficult to do. For example, there you are, cruising along on a nice sunny day, when suddenly you notice your oil temperature gauge has developed a […]

The genesis of E-Ox occurred several years ago when I stopped by the White Mountain Products Group booth at AOPA Expo in Atlantic City to look at a miniature emergency oxygen system they’d introduced. To be honest, my first reaction was skepticism. To begin with, I was a little put off by the melodramatic name […]