A method and apparatus for detecting a high flying condition of a transducer head in a computer disk drive is provided. The method and apparatus allow the detection of high fly write events that occur over one or a small number of data sectors. In addition, the present invention provides a method and apparatus for detecting high fly write events with a great deal of sensitivity. The method and apparatus of the present invention provide quick response and high sensitivity by monitoring the strength of a signal derived from data written to the disk, and signaling a high fly write event if the monitored signal strength in connection with a particular piece of data is less than a stored high fly write number corresponding to that piece of data by a predetermined amount.