Power setting

[bonal]

As I have only been flying our 20d/c for around 6 months I am on the steep side of the learning curve. On a normal flight we go VFR 7500 and 8500 at WOT 2500rpm 23 to 24" mp. The only egt is a single pick up with no temps indicated. I lean as a climb and once dialed in cruise I will lean until first sign of rpm drop then add a little to rich. I plan to upgrade my egt gauge in near future. Until then any thing bad with my current process?

[orionflt]

Nothing at all, that is the way I have done it for years. Recently I upgraded my engine monitor so now I can see what everything is doing, funny thing is I found that leaning the way I was gave me the best numbers.

[Cruiser]

not at 7500 or 8500 MSL. A non turbocharged engine cannot produce enough power at those altitudes to hurt anything.

[pinerunner]

I'm sure you're not hurting it since you're at 7500 ft, but think about what you've said you're doing. With a constant speed prop set at 2500 rpm you pull back the mixture until the rpm drops; ie you've gone well past peak and onto the lean side dropping power far enough to take the propeller out of governance. Then you bring the rpm back, just.  Welcome to the big pull.  Sounds like you're running a C model LOP. Didn't it run rough?

[bonal]

My friend who was lake aero's ferry pilot for years and knows mooney flying better than most said that was a good way to go. My home base is surrounded by mountains and my first instructor really got me thinking to fly as high as is practical altitude equals options. It's funny as we go all the aircraft I see way down there. If we are going over 2 hours time I like to go 10000 plus or minus 500 that's about when I see the speed start to drop on the Garmin. Winds aloft always factor this. Based on all that I have read and researched I am very happy with our mooney.

[bonal]

2 days ago at 7500 alt 30.03 running at 2500 mp 24" I have the prop governor opened about 1/3 from closed. Fuel burn was 9.8 GPH total for our trip of 2.5hrs with 4 climbs and 4 descents

[bonal]

And once it's set it runs very smooth. If I close the prop the rpm goes to about 2600 I seem to get the best IAS at 2500 if I increase prop my air speed starts to drop. This is good stuff very interesting

[BigTex]

You might trying bringing your RPM's in cruise back to 2400 and back the throttle just a touch and see how your engine responds.  I've found that my engine seems to get better fuel distribution with this configuration. 

[bonal]

I will give that a try. I feel like a kid at Christmas all this great mooney stuff. Glad I joined the group. Since buying our mooney I have had so much fun learning so many new things.

Oh yeah it is Christmas!