The Savvy Aviator

Recently I read an interesting account by a Bonanza owner who encountered an engine problem 11 hours after his aircraft came out of annual. The pilot had crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountains VFR at 12,500 feet westbound en route to the Bay Area, and was descending through 11,000 feet when he felt a bit of […]

Why are so many aircraft owners and A&P mechanics “spring-loaded to the overhaul position”? I think the word “overhaul” might be the most overused and misunderstood word in the lexicon of aircraft maintenance.Last week, I was talking to a friend who had just put his airplane in the shop for its annual inspection. I asked […]

FAA regulations state clearly that the “pilot in command” (PIC) of an aircraft is directly responsible for, and is the final authority as to, the operation of that aircraft. The PIC’s responsibility and authority is so absolute that in an in-flight emergency, the FAA authorizes the PIC to deviate from any rule or regulation to […]

I‘ve probably talked to thousands of owners of piston-powered airplanes over the years. Every one is serious about safety, and I’ve never met one that wasn’t absolutely convinced that his aircraft was safe and well-maintained. “I carry my family and friends in this airplane, so I’d never cut corners on maintenance.” Nevertheless, the piston-powered GA […]

In my early days as an aircraft owner in the late 1960s and 1970s, taking my airplane in for its annual inspection was not much different from taking my car in for 10,000-mile service. I’d make an appointment with the shop, taxi the plane over to the maintenance hangar, hand over the keys and maintenance […]

Ask any aircraft owner what the TBO is for the engine(s) on his aircraft and you’ll almost always get the correct answer without hesitation: “My engine has a 1,700-hour TBO.” But ask that owner to explain the significance of that TBO figure and you’ll get all sorts of answers, most of them flat wrong. Here […]

Recently I talked at length with an aircraft owner who had acquired a 1980 Cessna 340A just a few months ago. He found the aircraft through one of the best-known twin-Cessna brokers in the industry. The pressurized twin appeared to be in pristine condition, with excellent logs and mid-time engines (about 850 hours SMOH). Because […]

Over the past three and a half decades, I’ve had the opportunity (and frequently the privilege) of working with a great many aircraft mechanics. At first it was as a nave customer having them perform inspections and repairs on my airplane. Later it was as a student and apprentice swinging wrenches under their supervision as […]

When I first became an airplane owner 35 years ago, I hadn’t the slightest interest in aircraft maintenance. I had just relocated from New York to Southern California to pursue a career in the up-and-coming field of computer software. I’d earned my private pilot certificate four years earlier while a student at Dartmouth College, and […]

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