Savvy Stories

When his Skylane’s engine monitor readings went crazy-high, Frank called Savvy’s 24/7 breakdown assistance hotline for help. “I just flew my Cessna 182 from Kansas City to St. Louis to drop off a passenger there,” Frank Annecchini told the Savvy Breakdown Assistance Hotline operator. “Everything was normal. But after I dropped off my passenger and taxied back out for takeoff, my oil temperature was above 390℉ and all my CHTs were above 440℉. I taxied back to the parking area, shut down the engine, and checked the dipstick. The oil level and color look normal. But even with the engine shut down, the oil temperature is 330℉ and the CHTs are around 420℉. I’m not sure what to do.” The operator dutifully transcribed this onto a Savvy breakdown ticket and asked Frank for some additional information. She learned that the plane was a 1963 Cessna 182F, it was AOG at Spirit of St. Louis airport (KSUS), and obtained Frank’s cell phone number. She transcribed this info to the ticket, too. “Expect a callback from a Savvy technician within 15 minutes,” the operator told Frank. Savvy’s Team Approach About 10 minutes later, Savvy’s on-call account manager, Tom Cooper A&P/IA, called Frank […]

The manufacturer said the Cirrus’ air conditioner evaporator needed a $5K overhaul., but Tom’s persistence knocked more than 50% off that figure.

Larry had good experiences with this shop in the past, but this time was different.

Lew flew his Beech Baron to Nashville to drop off his wife, then couldn’t get the right engine started to fly home.

Bill’s RV-10 had high CHTs after its annual condition inspection. Engine monitor data made it easy to diagnose the problem

Ted’s IA wanted to start tearing his engine apart. We talked him out of it

Trace’s IA wasn’t a big fan of borescopes; luckily, Trace was

You’re in the Lesser Antilles when your airplane’s gear retraction system goes on the fritz. Who ya gonna call?

Savvy’s latest upgrade of its cutting-edge machine learning model yields failure predictions 20% more accurate and sensitive than ever before

What started as a smooth prebuy of a late-model Bonanza wound up getting unexpectedly…well…interesting

Not enough runway remaining to abort, barely enough power to limp to an emergency landing on an adjacent runway—now what?

By catching these ailing exhaust valves early, this maintenance-savvy owner averted costly and risky cylinder removal

Lessons learned from geriatric engines.

Something definitely wasn’t right with Willy’s #3 EGT. Engine monitor data analysis pinpointed the problem.

The seller of the Stinson insisted that the prebuy be done in his hangar and in his presence. We advised our client to walk away. When he didn’t, we had to…

You’re cruising high above rough terrain when your engine suddenly loses power and you make an emergency landing in the middle of nowhere. Now what?

Sometimes the best course of action is walking away.

A thermal runaway can do bad things to a cylinder quite quickly.

The simple task of “dialing the crank” turned into a costly marathon until expert advice saved the day.

The Cherokee 235 had a mag drop of 1000+ RPM, and the question was “why?”

A stuck exhaust valve resulted in a seriously sick Lycoming and a seriously stuck Cessna Cardinal.

The prebuy revealed a long list of discrepancies. Enough to justify walking away?

The day before Christmas, the Skylane flew perfectly. The day after Christmas, half of the cylinders refused to light off. Why?

The client reported the engine “burbled.” Fortunately, what we saw in the data was the clue to fixing the problem.