Too Much Horsepower

[donkaye]

It's always been said that you can never have too much horsepower.  Over the past week I found that personally not to be true.

The student, who just got his private a couple of weeks ago, purchased an Acclaim Type-S that had the 310 HP upgrade.  I've got a lot of time in Acclaims, but hadn't flown one with the 310 HP conversion.  We flew it from near Oklahoma City (KOUN) to San Jose, California last Sunday.  Because it had air-conditioning and TKS, it was load limited.  We did the trip with a 10 knot headwind most of the way and 2 fuel stops in a little under 7 hours.  I trained him all week and being a young 28 years old I was able to sign him off on his High Performance and Complex Endorsements by the end of today.

At full power you're pushed  back into the seat and the vibration is more than I like.  We used full power for the short Palo Alto and Livermore short runway, but a more comfortable power setting was about 30" MP or about 90% Power.  On takeoff with full power its burning 38 gal/hr, and in cruise its about 20.5 gal/hr.

If you're thinking about doing the upgrade, I might think again.

[Z W]

Does the 310 HP require excessive right rudder on takeoff, such that it feels unstable or dangerous on takeoff?

Sometimes I like the idea of an extra 100HP over what I've got in a 262. But I've wondered how that really feels on essentially the same airframe. And at 38 GPH take off / climb and 20GPH in cruise I feel like I would often be flying around with range anxiety, or be effectively limited to 2-hour legs unless flying solo and light.

[Schllc]

No. It does not require much more rudder than one without the upgrade, and it has never felt unstable or dangerous. 
in fact when you are taking off from an airport like north Perry in Florida, where there is NOWHERE you can land and survive if you lose an engine, you are grateful for every single hp. 
IIRC, the extra ho is only supposed to be used in takeoff, not cruise. 
the difference between the 280 and 310 is definitely noticeable, but it is not as if it’s going from a Camry to an F1 car. 
I do agree with Don however, in that is certainly not a necessity in an acclaim.  It is absolutely something I would want in an ovation.  And if you bought an acclaim with the mod, you do not have to use it, but I don’t believe it is worth what it costs to add.