Cyril Gibb

There seems to be an increasing number of flats. I've never had a flat on an aircraft, although just saying that will tempt fate. What are peoples experience ?

In the winter (typically 6 months in Canada) I often end up flying at night in IMC. My #1 fear is total, sudden engine failure. As a possible help in the future for others, what were the early symptoms and what was the internal fault that finally blocked fuel?

That is just for idle mixture. To check idle mixture, you should see a 50 RPM rise when you smoothly shut down using ICO. Less than 50 RPM is too lean. More than 50 RPM is too rich. But it's for idle mixture ONLY. Zero effect on the main metering.

Not to mention (not all, but certainly any new) cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, trailers, lawn mowers, mountain bikes and even my wheelbarrows. Maybe that's an opportunity to go the EAA avionics non-certified route but with tires and wheels. Lighter, more reliable, less expensive. edit: I spoke too soon maybe... I see Spruce has 600-6 tubeless tires.

Yup, I do the same thing until I get to cruise, but only at high rpm to keep cylinder pressures (hence temps) down.

While I'm still here, and avoiding what I was supposed to be doing, working on the bathroom renovation , a note to simplify things for newbies if they want to play with LOP. For ROP power calculations there's a myriad of variables that make my head hurt, although using the POH power tables are good enough for government work. LOP is much simpler. Cruiser has an excellent LOP Power% calculator in the MooneySpace download area. For LOP, power % is a simple calculation using fuel flow, (for anyone that has a fuel flow readout). You only have to know one number: your 75% fuel flow rate. If you're LOP that 75% fuel flow rate never changes...hot/cold/wet/dry/higher/lower/whatever. I always cruise WOT/LOP/low RPM after my initial climb. I know that for my plane when LOP, 75% power is approximately 10GPH. I'm not a stickler for the 75% thing, so if I'm battling a nasty headwind I might go above 10GPH. In tailwinds I might lean below 10GPH if that would avoid a fuel stop. The point is that in cruise, the only engine control I use is the mixture. One number to remember. Easy Peasy.

I've been biting my tongue for a few days because I don't want to start a new bun fight... however... the OP is a relative newbie and I believe the leaning instruction may be bad advice. Lycoming operators manuals from the 70s until right now have discussed leaning without complete engine instrumentation. They have consistently described the leaning technique to achieve Best Power and Best Economy. note also that this applies to the 0-360 and is applicable under 75% power... other displacements vary somewhat in the leaning guidance (italics are mine) Best Power: Lean until a drop in power (rpm or airspeed depending on fixed pitch or constant speed props) then enrichen to get peak power back. (that would put you at about 150 ROP) Best Economy: Lean until engine roughness and then enrichen until smooth. (that would vary but should put all cylinders somewhere LOP) If you lean until roughness, putting you somewhere LOP, then enrichen to smooth and then add 50°F, you may have driven some cylinders into slightly ROP. ...potential red box. Perhaps the confusion may be due to truly ancient instructions that said to never run anywhere LOP, where the guidance was lean to power reduction, enrichen to smooth and then give it a half turn richer. Conflating the leaning instructions for the old "always run rich" to the latest "how to set best economy" I think is an error. apologies in advance if I've stepped on any toes

I didn't realise that. I thought that the engines were more or less identical forever. I learn something every day... sometimes more than one thing

I absolutely agree about being able to run LOP successfully with a .5 spread. I was remarking on the Lycoming IO360 which usually has a reasonably even spread out of the box. If the injectors are clean, the spider is providing even volumes (baby food bottle test), there are no induction leaks, there are no individual weak cylinders and the ignition system is set up accurately the spread can and should be much less.based on my limited experience and a quick perusal of MooneySpace threads. I have a spread of 0.2 - 0.3 at 8 GPH and 0.0 - 0.2 at 9 GPH. My goal was 0.0 at my normal cruise of 9 GHP, so set it up that way. eg. Coming back from West Virginia yesterday: note coarse leaning when leveling off at 20 mins and fine tuning at 1 hour https://www.savvyanalysis.com/flight/1858762/4d97c7b9-f6e5-419e-aacb-fc69914c6062

I have a slight fuel smell in Gladys when I get in initially. It's a tiny amount from her fuel selector which will get new o-rings soon. Yours is different. If it varies with your mixture setting it's almost certainly coming from your engine compartment, not a tank, fuel sender, fuel selector, etc which you'd smell regardless of mixture position. To be strong enough to smell in the cabin in flight, there's raw fuel somewhere around a hot engine. I'd get pressure into the system on the ground by the boost pump with the cowls off and play with the mixture to see if anything is obvious. Clarence et al may provide some ideas.

For an 0360 all bets are off without careful work on baffling and leaning technique. However, for your IO360 a .5 GAMI spread is very poor. If you're getting a .5 spread even with GAMI injectors then something is very very wrong. You have justification to be nervous. Combine the big spread with a fuel smell depending on the mixture setting and it's time to have a close look at your fuel system. A fuel smell in flight from an unknown source would be extremely troubling for me... but I'm a nervous Nellie.

by the battery box

Ah 201er, you are so young....... When I started flight training in the early 70s, I was taught to cruise LOP. Every pilot and instructor I knew flew LOP. I understand that the advantages of LOP was known and practiced in the 30s and 40s. It ain't new. I dropped out of aviation for forty years until a few years ago. I couldn't believe that LOP/ROP was being argued. Bizarre!

Such a negative view. I heard that Elon Musk just bought a previously unpublished paper by L Ron Hubbard regarding telekinesis. Elon can use his "almost ready" for roll-out FCP (Flatulence Capture and Storage) technology. He's going to use currently wasted Unicorn farts that will be transmogrified directly into electricity and sent via telekinesis to Teslas without the expense of transmission lines. The only delay is waiting for some more government grants and tax credits.

Here's the Lycoming leaning graph which shows 50 ROP to create the highest CHTs. Way leaner (if possible) or way richer would be kinder to your cylinders.

I know this topic has been discussed ad nauseum, but my curiosity is about WHY people have decided to operate their engines one way or the other. Sources of information can be: common sense; personal experience; fellow pilots; the POH; engine manufacturers; AMEs; blogs; historical documents and finally what I call test results. When I mean test results, it's the findings of instrumented test cells. The best example I've found of that is the test facilities for Advanced Pilot Seminars / GAMI. I'm aware of the pros and cons of engine management based on the above knowledge bases, and have decided that LOP is my preference. Being a retired geek, I find current objective test results to be more compelling than older or more subjective data points. *when I use the term "test results" in the questions, I mean the stuff that Mike Busch preaches or what you can read in Pelicans Perch etc. based on instrumented test facilities

I have a plastic owl hung on a string from the hangar rafters over Gladys. No bird poo or nests in the 3 years I've had the hangar. On the other hand, Republic airport (KFRG) on Long Island two weeks ago was another story completely. Should have had the cowl openings blocked. .... little feathered buggers I wonder if perching the plastic owl on the roof while parked outdoors would work? Anybody tried?

True about a lean mixture burning more slowly than a richer one. I back the rpm off to about 2300 in LOP cruise to compensate. It brings the peak cylinder pressure back closer to the optimum crank angle and (for me) results in a small but noticeable increase in airspeed. MPG, of course, is more complex when the wind component is taken into consideration. Into a headwind, I usually get a higher mpg using a closer to peak mixture and a higher rpm because the increased airspeed more than compensates for the increased fuel flow. For a tailwind I go deeper into LOP.

Four one six four five two two nine four one Call me tomorrow

Note that St Pierre and Miquelon aren't in Canada, let alone Newfoundland. Close, but no cigar.

This site seems to contradict your statement about strict laws in Australia prohibiting overbooking. Is the information on this site incorrect or correct? https://events.com.au/overbooking-airlines-guide-to-air-passenger-rights/

The plastic end bits for flap and trim were both loose on my 75F, and the cables were binding. I slid the whole cable inners completely out from underneath at the adjusters and cleaned off the 40 year old accumulated gunk, lubed and slid them back in. I then used epoxy to glue the indicators back on to the cable ends. While I had the indicator cover off anyway, I replaced the cracked indicator "window" with a Lexan replacement from the Home Depot aviation aisle. Looks like new. ...Just an alternative to accessing from the copilot side, I didn't have to remove/loosen the cable outers.

I just came back from a trip to NYC. Great service by Sheltair at KFRG, although no free night with fuel purchase. However, to stay true to the topic, I found out that US customs at FRG charge $150 flat rate. All aircraft regardless of size or # of passengers. No warning at all. We can just add this to the hidden charges issue.

Unfortunately, customs has a pile of reservations at the three airports they cover. No customs slots available between 10:00 and 16:30, so we'll just clear in Buffalo. I was just checking and realised that it was at Sheltair in St. Petersburg KSPG) Albert Whitted (Florida) that we got great, friendly service when we were there in January.

He is, according to the website.... and I'll do that