sj
Staff member
Northwest Arkansas
We all know that in most airplanes (maybe all..) by powering back even a little bit, we can often increase our range and certainly increase our duration. I have done this in my short-legged C-180 a number of times "by guess and by golly" with pretty good results. I googled around and found some really long haired equations that caused my eyes to glaze over. I don't have a fancy gadget in the plane to tell me max efficiency (many do now).
Are there any shortcut, rule of thumbs, techniques for getting to get close to max MPG quickly?
Here is my BF&I plan for determining this:
1. Find a day where the wind is pretty much the same for a hundred miles or so.
2. Head in one direction at normal cruising altitude and power settings with the AP keeping the heading and altitude
3. Lean to EGT/CHT as normal
4. Record fuel flow, airspeed, and ground speed
Repeat until done...
1. Reduce power by 1" of MP
2. retrim for AP
3 re-lean to temps
4. Record fuel flow, airspeed, and ground speed
Go home and do the math...
Now I DO have a GNS430W in this plane connected to my fuel flow meter and it will display effective MPG - I will also record that.
Now, your thoughts, rebukes, criticisms, etc... Please!
sj