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Not only are you wrong, you are profoundly wrong. Sorry, but this is basic student pilot stuff. This thinking comes from too much time flying with GPS and too little basic airmanship. Question: If you had no GPS (or VOR, etc.) and were flying over an undercast or over smooth water, how would you or the plane know there was a "crosswind?" Note: The "crosswind" (note quotation marks) you refer to is only relative to a ground track. Advice: Get thee to a good CFI ASAP, or cozy up with a good book on the subject.

I won, I won, I won!!!!! at the San Lucas retirement home bingo last night. I got five numbers in a row. But I didn't get the prize I wanted, the folding luggage cart. I got instead the adult diapers pack. Top prize was a plot for two with a granite tombstone. Oh well maybe next time. José

Jose: Why don't you try that and if you win, you could buy everybody on this forum a new(ish) Mooney! Who's with me???

I have personally met Mike Busch, and he is not only a mechanic but a CFII etc, with 3500 hours on his engines. Again, I have met very few mechanics that were trained pilots, not amateur pilots, but professional ones. Further, if these mechanicsa admonish LOP so much, then why are there piles of cylinders in the corner of the shop and logbooks in every plane I bought for a dealer that said "800 SMOH, 100 since top overhaul" from the 1950s through today. LOP on flat engines is a new thing, but old school for radials. I have logged data that shows cooler CHTs while LOP and higher efficiency. I have data that shows peak exhaust valve temperature occuring between 25-50 ROP. I have an airplane which gets 17.5 NMPG at 65% power and close to 20 at 50% power. I have Lycoming saying its OK to run peak EGT at 75% power and below with no regard, but somehow 15 degrees leaner is somehow frowned upon. The Cirrus SR22-GTS and the Continental TSIO-520BE in the Malibu is ONLY allowed to operate at LOP power settings and in fact has LOP cruise FF limits which may be approached only if the CHT is below a set value. I have never seen a single NTSB or FAA report listing LOP operation as a causal factor in any accident, incident, or inflight engine shutdown. The only argument besides "That'll burn your engine up" is that extra oxygen left over from the combustion process somehow "oxidizes" the valves and exhaust. I believe that you can safely run LOP between 50% and 75% power: IF you have logged the GAMI spread and do so every 50 hours, IF you have done the GAMI hi-low induction leak test or pressurized the intake for leaks, IF you have a multi-point engine monitor, IF you have done an in-flight LOP mag check and it runs smoothly, IF you never exceed 400 CHT, and IF the engine runs smoothly LOP. If any of these paramaters cannot be met, run ROP (which can be safer in this instance) and investigate. For takeoff, climb, and cruise over 75%, you can only run ROP safely. Although if range is a factor, a LOP takeoff and complete flight from brake release to touchdown can be accomplished. Running out of fuel is pretty hazardous as airplanes are not very treeodynamic, cornodynamic, rockodynamic, dirtodynamic, or hydrodynamic. Thats pretty hard on engines too. That's part of the reason I joined Beechtalk. There are quite a few pilots who have ran engines to TBO twice on the same cylinders and cases running LOP and quite a few run 90% power LOP. Thats a pretty powerful argument.

Or, upgrade to the blue flourosilicone O-rings that last a lot longer. See http://csobeech.com/fuel-caps.html. Bonanzas use the same fuel caps our Mooneys do.