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06-21-2016, 04:45 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Canada
Posts: 439
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Ok, just a follow up for those who may be considering what I am.
I flew today for about 2 hours. The plan was to cruise at 2/3rd speed (100 knots vs. 150 knots) and see what that felt like and if the plane was happy or not.
I think the experiment was a success. Here are the findings.
At 40% power, 16.0 MAP and 2200 on the prop I was right in the 100 knot range. I needed about 5-10 degrees of flaps to bring the nose down to a normal attitude. CHT's were perfectly fine. 320 degrees on all cylinders. Oil temp was fine too. It heats up quicker but stays at the 185 degree range or below.
As expected the plane flies a bit mushy but after awhile I got use to it. I found it quite relaxing actually. There is less vibration and it's a bit smoother and just kind of fits in with the whole "chill out and cruise" mindset.
I leaned the engine out to 4.5 gallons per hour. At 3.5 it seemed to run rough so I enrichened it a bit and it smoothened out fine. EGT's were mid 1350's or above but who cares about EGT's at 40% power.
The autopilot held the plane ok but the plane was much more susceptible to up drafts and down drafts. The Autopilot wasn't happy about that as it was trying to maintain altitude with an under producing engine. Smooth air was fine.
As mentioned above, the degree of flap extension made a huge change to the sight profile out the window. A few degrees down and things looked just like normal. No where near 20 degrees was needed as my original post suggested.
Dad and I found it better for him to take off first and clear the zone and then I would get airborne and catch him on our pre-assigned discreet frequency. Then I'd slow things down and cruise.
So there you have it. It's possible. With shortish legs of 2 to 2.5 hours each it'll take awhile but should be managable. As I said before, it's all about Pops and making memories in our planes.
My hope is that I'm not carboning up the engine flying like this? I don't think so because with such low fuel burn there's not too much gas in there? Please share your thoughts on this.
Darren
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06-21-2016, 05:04 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Livermore, CA
Posts: 6,797
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At those power settings lean it as much as you can, until just before roughness sets in. If you can run smoothly LOP, do it.
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06-22-2016, 08:54 AM
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Clarksboro, NJ
Posts: 829
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Last weekend I tried following my boys in their Tomahawk (90KT ish). It took a lot of effort, mainly because the Tomahawk was affected much more by changes in wind speed and up/downdrafts than the RV. I kept getting too close to them, and then too far away when I would back off. I was at a high angle of attack, so keeping an eye on them was difficult. This was with full flaps. My conclusion after an hour of hard work: as much as I wanted to hang with them, it was much better and safer to meet them at the destination. Flying around a 90kts does not replicate following another plane at 90kts and trying to stay in visual contact.
As far as running LOP - tried that too, but I kept having to enrich to climb with them in the updrafts. Then you have to re-lean and repeat. This is not set-it-and-forget-it flying. There is no way you can do that for 30 hours. It is like trying to drive in traffic with the cruse control on.
What I did find is that staying in contact on an open frequency was just as good as keeping them in visual contact.
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06-22-2016, 09:13 AM
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Canada
Posts: 439
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Thanks for your thoughts. I didn't even try to keep in visual contact with my Dad. It was way too much work and took way too much brain power.
As long as our altimeters were set to the same pressure and our GPS's were set to the same destination, we just flew our own way. I stayed right of the magenta line, he stayed left, I stayed 3-400 feet above or below and all seemed well. We talked on the discreet freq. and updated our position every 5 min or so. Or just to chat.
Dad did take off first and I would arrive at the destination ahead of him but my whole "slow" flight experiment was so that I didn't get there an hour ahead of him for every two hours flown.
Ya, flying within visual contact with a 90 knoter is a recipe for disaster I think. Short term maybe ok. But long range, no way
Darren
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06-22-2016, 09:34 AM
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Senior Curmudgeon
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Dayton Airpark, NV A34
Posts: 15,420
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Darren S
Ya, flying within visual contact with a 90 knoter is a recipe for disaster I think. Short term maybe ok. But long range, no way
Darren
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Good practice for OSH arrivial 
__________________
Mike Starkey
VAF 909
Rv-10, N210LM.
Flying as of 12/4/2010
Phase 1 done, 2/4/2011 
Sold after 240+ wonderful hours of flight.
"Flying the airplane is more important than radioing your plight to a person on the ground incapable of understanding or doing anything about it."
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06-22-2016, 03:43 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Socal
Posts: 453
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Why would you do this?
__________________
RV-8 N695RA flying
Working on an RV-4
Born to fly, forced to work
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06-22-2016, 04:06 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: USA
Posts: 3,179
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Darren, thanks for the write up. It sounds like touve got a good recipe for your father-son trip! From time to time, I fly with a Cherokee 140 at 105kts. I've not tried adding flaps but I may add 5 degrees and see what it does to speed, AoA, and fuel burn. I always lean so I think our respective experiences will be close.
Fly safe!
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