AOPA Pilot Magazine

If a plane is listed for sale cheap, there’s always a reason. “Hey Mike, this is Danny in Louisiana,” read the email. Danny is one of my clients who used to own a Cirrus SR22 and now flies a Cessna 182 Katmai STOL conversion. “Would you look at this 1965 Cessna 310I on eBay and let me know if you think a $35K price without a pre-buy would be wise. I have three buddies (plus myself) that are interested in working on twin rating, so we would be sharing the risk. Thanks in advance for your opinion.” The email ended with a link to the eBay listing. With a sigh, I braced myself and clicked the link. “This is one of the nicest twin Cessna 310I’s out there,” the eBay ad proclaimed. Let’s think about this: It’s a 50-year-old all-metal airplane, and Cessna built these aircraft with absolutely no internal corrosion proofing. This one is based in Baton Rouge, one of the highest corrosion-risk areas of the United States. It had suffered a gear-up landing awhile back, but somehow managed to avoid being declared a constructive total loss by the owner’s insurance carrier. Oh, and it had 7,639 hours on […]

When the pilot of a round-the-world flight found himself AOG in Iceland with electrical issues, remote diagnosis saved the day. Ademilola “Lola” Odujinrin has a passion for aviation. He’s 37 years old, resides in Nigeria with his wife and two school-age children, and was first bitten by the flying bug at age 7 when his airline-pilot uncle invited him onto an airliner flight deck (back in the days when such visits weren’t prohibited). Lola earned his private pilot certificate at age 20. A decade later, he followed in his uncle’s footsteps to become a commercial pilot flying Boeing 737s. Lola is also an overachieving athlete and adventurer, who in 2010 cycled 2,000 miles from Morocco to London in 17 days. So it was no big surprise when he announced his intention to become the first African to fly solo around the world. The aircraft Lola chose for this mission was N313CD, a 2004 Cirrus SR22 that would be “tanked” to hold enough fuel to provide endurance of 17+ hours, and equipped with survival gear, HF and sitcom radios, and a bunch of GoPro cameras. Organizing and obtaining funds for this mission (dubbed “Project Transcend”) took ten years and was fraught […]

A&Ps are trained to find things wrong with your aircraft. But there’s a time and place for that, and it comes once a year. It was the week before AirVenture 2016. Normally, I would never perform any maintenance on my trusty Cessna 310 immediately before departing on an important trip, for fear I might break something. But this time I had no choice.  The FAA had issued AD 2016-7-24 on April 26, 2016, requiring replacement of the attach hardware at both ends of the elevator trim tab push-pull rod within 90 days. As soon as the AD hit the streets, I’d ordered the required hardware, but it took a while before I received it. Once it arrived I drove to my hangar with the intention of replacing the hardware in compliance with the AD. But I was surprised to discover that there was not adequate maintenance access to the nut and bolt at the forward end of the pushrod. I couldn’t figure out how the hardware could be changed without removing the whole elevator. I checked with Paul and Phil, two A&P colleagues who I knew did a lot of Cessna maintenance, but neither had ever had occasion to perform […]

Fixing is usually the easiest part of aircraft maintenance. Figuring out what’s wrong is usually the hardest part.  By Mike Busch | A&P/IA A funny thing happened on my way to Milwaukee… It was 2013 and I was flying my trusty 1979 Cessna T310R to speak at the annual national convention of the Flying Physicians Association. My talk to the flying docs was on the subject of troubleshooting. Little did I know that my troubleshooting skills were about to be put to the test. I went wheels-up from my home base in Santa Maria, California, about 8 AM, headed for Denver’s Front Range Airport. The forecast called for thunderstorms after 1 PM, and my plan was to arrive early enough to miss them. The plan worked…although less than an hour after my arrival, a tornado touched down about 5 miles north and shut down Denver International Airport for a while. The next morning, all was calm at Front Range as I taxied out for takeoff, destined for Milwaukee’s Timmerman Airport. I was cleared for takeoff, released the brakes, smoothly advanced the throttles to the stop and started my takeoff roll on runway 17.  Uh oh! Something felt wrong. It was […]

Before following expert advice, choose your expert with care.  We aviators are of necessity a trusting lot. We constantly trust other people with our lives, our safety, and our financial wellbeing. We trust nameless and faceless air traffic controllers to keep us from hitting anything. We trust our A&P to keep our aircraft safe to fly for ourselves and our passengers. We trust our engine manufacturer and overhaul shop to build an engine that won’t quit at night or in IMC over hostile terrain. We trust our AME to keep us out of trouble with the Friendlies in Oke City (at least until the Class 3 medical goes away, knock on wood), our broker to help us find an aircraft to buy that isn’t a lemon, our aircraft insurance agent to keep us out of hot water if something goes wrong, and the list goes on. But how can we tell if these experts upon whose expertise we depend are genuinely trustworthy? How do we know they’re giving us good advice? Should we rely on what they tell us? Should we seek a second opinion? Maybe a third? We don’t usually get to choose which air traffic controllers we depend […]

The definition of this ubiquitous term depends on the context.  A bit over two years ago, a fellow I’ll call “Bob” bought a 10-year-old Cirrus SR22 from another fellow I’ll call “Sam.” Prior to the purchase, Bob had a very thorough pre-buy performed by an independent A&P/IA, who gave the airplane a clean bill of health. This pre-buy was so comprehensive that would have qualified as an annual inspection, but for some strange reason the IA signed it off as a 100-hour inspection instead. As a result, Bob would up having the airplane annualed just a few months later when the prior annual inspection expired.  The annual was performed at a large, well-known Cirrus Authorized Service Center—the very same service center that had performed the previous annual inspection on the airplane for Sam prior to the sale. So Bob was floored when the shop reported that all six cylinders had head cracks in the vicinity of the top spark plug holes. The shop assured Bob that Continental Motors would replace the cracked cylinders at no cost, although Bob would be on the hook for the several thousand dollars of labor involved in doing the top overhaul. Once the six cylinders […]

Aircraft parts are expensive, so we really should be repairing rather than replacing them whenever possible.  When the co-owner of a 1976 Cessna 172M emailed me, she had just come from talking to her mechanic and was clearly in a state of sticker shock: “Where can I locate a used battery box for my Skyhawk without having to rob a bank? Our Gill battery (that has constantly leaked from shortly after we bought it) has caused corrosion that cannot be repaired, so we are told. Our plane is down for its annual, and apparently will remain unairworthy until this issue is resolved to the FAA’s standards. “In the past, we’ve used acid-proof paint to protect the aluminum box, and pads to soak up any leakage, but the problem has now become severe enough that the A&P says we have to replace the whole box. I thought our current one could be repaired, but according to the mechanic the bottom of the box has the stamp on it that makes it legal, and that area is damaged and needs to be replaced. “New boxes from Cessna are nearly $1,000, which we find totally ridiculous and unacceptable. What can we do? Are […]

What do you do if a mechanic working on your airplane tells you, “I can’t sign it off”? Dick is the maintenance officer of an 80-member flying club in northern New Jersey. The club operates several aircraft including a 2011 Cessna Skyhawk SP powered by a Lycoming IO-360-L2A engine. The engine has now reached 2,400 hours—400 hours beyond Lycoming’s published TBO of 2,000 hours. In a phone call, Dick explained to me that at the Skyhawk’s recent annual inspection, the four-cylinder Lycoming had compressions in the high 60s and low 70s. It wasn’t using much oil. The oil filter was clean, and the oil analysis report had no red flags. Most experienced A&Ps would agree that the parallel-valve four-cylinder Lycomings are the most bulletproof piston engines in general aviation, and that the Lycoming IO-360-L2A is the best of breed. If flown frequently and regularly, they often make it to 4,000 hours or more between overhauls. The flying club’s shop in New Jersey didn’t see it that way. Although the shop signed off the Skyhawk’s recent annual inspection as airworthy, they made it clear to Dick that they were profoundly uncomfortable with the club continuing to operate the engine beyond TBO. […]

The new crop of factory-built LSAs are impressive and exciting, but the maintenance regulations for them are…ah…different I recently returned from the U.S. Sport Aviation Expo in Sebring, Florida, the foremost aviation event devoted to light sport, homebuilt, and ultralight aircraft. I was a first-timer at this event, having been invited by the show organizers to give a keynote address and a couple of technical forums. I accepted this invitation not because I had any expertise in this lightweight corner of the general aviation envelope—all of my prior knowledge and experience having been with standard category certificated aircraft—but because I sensed this was an exciting and rapidly growing segment of general aviation and this would be a great opportunity for me to learn about it. And learn I did. I had the opportunity to spend quality time with such legendary experts as Prof. H. Paul Shuch (LSA maintenance guru), Phil Lockwood and Dean Vogel (Rotax engine gurus), Wally Anderson (who operates Synergy Air, the nation’s largest Van’s RV build-assist center and also the manufacturer of the RV-12), and Mike Schofield (Dynon Avionics marketing manager), among others. It was like drinking from a firehose. How far we’ve come In July 2004—just […]

FAA’s Engine & Propeller Directorate meets with GA to improve how ADs are dealt with. Early last December, I had the privilege of attending a two-day meeting at the offices of the FAA’s Engine & Propeller Directorate (EPD) in Burlington, Mass., about 30 minutes’ drive northwest of Boston. The meeting was billed as the first “GA Engine Summit.” It was the brainchild of AOPA’s Rob Hackman and EPD’s Wayne Maguire. The purpose was to try to improve the relationship between the FAA and the GA community, a relationship that has been strained nearly to the breaking point in recent years by a series of draconian Airworthiness Directives (ADs) against Superior and ECi cylinders that I’ve referred to as the FAA’s “war on jugs.” The meeting was attended by a litany of FAA executives and subject matter experts from EPD, the Small Airplane Directorate (SAD), and FAA Headquarters. Industry was represented by delegations from AOPA, EAA, the Aeronautical Repair Station Association (ARSA), Continental Motors, Lycoming, Superior Air Parts, Danbury Aerospace (former owners of ECi), and a number of others. When Rob Hackman left AOPA last June, his successor Dave Oord (AOPA VP of regulatory affairs) picked up the ball, and it […]

Maintenance decisions need to be fact- and evidence-based. The current owner of the vintage J-model Bonanza emailed me for advice. He’d purchased the airplane just four months earlier with a fresh annual inspection, and was already stressing out about what to do about his engine at the next annual eight months hence. According to the owner, the airplane’s Continental IO-470 engine was the original one that had been in the airplane when it rolled out of the factory in 1958. It had been overhauled seven years later in 1965 at its published TBO of 1400 hours, and then overhauled again nine years later in 1974 when it hit TBO again. Now the engine was once again at 1400 hours SMOH, but this time it had taken more than 40 years to get there. The owner explained that the engine was using about a quart of oil every three hours, but was otherwise running strong and smooth with decent compression readings and not making metal. He wanted my opinion as to whether he should be considering a major overhaul at the forthcoming annual, a top overhaul, or no overhaul. “Considering this engine is 57 years old and more than 40 years […]

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 considering overhauling his engine, thinking maybe it was approaching TBO and hoping to convince him this wasn’t a valid reason to tear down a perfectly healthy engine. As it turned out, this engine wasn’t yet close to TBO. Jim said his A&P recently pulled a cylinder because it had a leaking exhaust valve. With the jug removed, the mechanic discovered a badly worn cam lobe and showed it to Jim, explaining that the engine would need to be removed from the airplane and have its crankcase split in order to replace the damaged cam. The mechanic offered to do the work himself in-house (rather than send the engine out), and estimated the engine repair would come to roughly $10,000, including parts and labor. Jim agreed and authorized the mechanic to proceed. In a follow-up conversation, Jim asked his A&P whether it might make sense to overhaul the engine, given that it was already going to […]

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 his new-to-him bird a clean bill of health. Yet even before Fred ferried the airplane to his home base, mechanical gremlins started to appear. The alternator failed. Some serious exhaust issues required repair. These and various other discrepancies started Fred thinking that perhaps the clean pre-buy and annual were a bit overoptimistic. Then ATC reported the transponder wasn’t working. Fred sent it to an avionics shop, who told him it was an old tube-type unit that was uneconomical to repair, and that he’d be money ahead installing a new transponder. Just prior to ferrying the airplane to the avionics shop, Fred discovered that the autopilot was malfunctioning. He had to pull a circuit breaker stop it from alarming. Then as he entered the pattern to land, the whole avionics stack went dark and Fred wound up landing no-radio. Fred taxied the plane to his home-field shop, but his A&P was unable to duplicate the failures, nor […]

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 short). In my blog post, I gave a bunch of examples of such MIFs—aircraft malfunctions that were the unintended result of errors during maintenance.  One of the examples I gave involved an early model Cirrus SR22 that was equipped with a Sandel SN3308 electronic horizontal situation indicator (EHSI). The Cirrus owner emailed me that he’d been plagued by intermittent heading errors on the EHSI. When I questioned the owner, I learned that he’d been suffering these problems for about three years, and that they started right after his shop performed the scheduled 200-hour replacement of the Sandel’s projector lamp. Coincidence? I’d seen this exact same problem in my own Sandel-equipped Cessna 310. It’s invariably due to inadequate engagement between the connectors on the back of the instrument and the mating connectors in the mounting tray. It’s essential to slide the instrument into the tray just as far as possible before tightening the clamp. It’s a bit […]

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 me (as an aircraft owner and maintenance professional) was the one by Continental Motors that they had acquired the assets of Danbury AeroSpace of San Antonio, Texas.  “Danbury who?” you might ask. Actually, Danbury is a major supplier of piston aircraft engine components and experimental engines sold under the Engine Components International (ECi) and Titan brand names. ECi and Titan Engines Inc. are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Danbury. I found the Continental/Danbury announcement significant because it will result in major changes to the competitive landscape in the piston aircraft engine market. In my view, these changes will be excellent news for some aircraft owners and rather bad news for others. Some background To put this in perspective, we need to go back four decades to a time when two Texas-based companies—Superior Air Parts (SAP) and Engine Components Inc. (ECi)—first obtained FAA Parts Manufacturer Approvals (PMAs) to produce replacement parts for Continental and Lycoming engines. Prior to that time, Continental and Lycoming […]