I was checked out in the Beaver by Jack Corey, a somewhat crusty veteran of many hours in deHavilland aircraft. After the first day of the checkout, I wandered through the maintenance hangar on Lake Hood, and our Chief of Maintenance, Jerry Lawhorne, called me over to his desk. He said "When you get done getting trained fly the Beaver by that check pilot, you come talk to me, and I'll tell you how I want MY engine run."
So, after the checkout, I went and spent a couple hours with Jerry reviewing how he wanted me to run that engine. One of the things he told me was this: "If you are ever on takeoff from a confined area, and you're looking at trees in the top of your windshield, and you wreck my airplane, I'd better find knuckle prints in what's left of the windshield, from shoving that throttle all the way to the stop." "But, if you shove that throttle lever all the way to the stop, then cycle the prop lever for an extra boost, and that all gets you over the obstacle, then once you've cleaned your underwear out, you give me a call and fess up, and I'll tell you what we're going to have to do with MY engine."
A couple years later, I landed in Karluk Lake in mid winter. The lake was partially frozen, but there was open water around Camp Island, which is where we needed to go, so I landed. My co conspirator took a little longer to finish his task than planned, and when we got back in the plane and I taxiied to warm the engine and reposition for takeoff, the ice had moved with a wind that'd come up while we were on the water.
As I turned around to takeoff and pushed the power up, it took me a little while to realize that ice was a LOT closer than it had been when we landed.....and I had more load now. And, by then I wasn't sure I'd stop. So, throttle all the way to the stop. With cool temps and buckets of power (the prop on this airplane was a full foot longer than legal) the plane leaped out of the water and I reduced back to METO power.
Next day, I called Jerry and fessed up. He asked me how much MP I'd pulled and how long. I reported a solid 43 inches, and maybe two minutes.
His response was "No problem, just don't do that again unless you're really desperate."
I said "Hey Jerry, if 43 inches is okay, why does the Flight Manual limit power to 36.5?" His response was he'd forward me a book to read.
Couple days later I received a book in the mail. It was a Pratt and Whitney R-985 maintenance and overhaul manual. With it was a note from Jerry, which read: "See what the engine manufacturer says about max power".
That book was huge, and I spent hours looking for that information. Finally gave up, and called Jerry. I said what am I missing? His response: "The engine manufacturer doesn't specify limits on that engine. Power limits are an airframe manufacturer's deal. In other words, don't sweat it, but if you exceed deHavilland's recommendations again, call me and we'll talk about it."
I flew that airplane a few more years, and never needed to shove that lever to the windshield again. But, what a fantastic workhorse of an airplane. I too was taught to crack some flaps for cruise (airplane was on 4580 amphibious floats), which worked great. N765 was a civilian Beaver out of Downsview to the government, brand new.
It broke my heart when they took that airplane away from me, sold it and replaced it with a brand new 206 amphib......
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MTV