Inflight Emergency

The C-182RG I fly is not fuel injected and no good engine temp gauge. So that's what I do for cruise, lean until it stumbles then one rotation rich. Vernier mixture control. Learned that when I first learned to fly in C-150s. Same technique still works.

On Friday, December 26, 2014 4:00:53 PM UTC-7, Bill T wrote:
The C-182RG I fly is not fuel injected and no good engine temp gauge. So that's what I do for cruise, lean until it stumbles then one rotation rich. Vernier mixture control. Learned that when I first learned to fly in C-150s. Same technique still works.

Adjusting to the break point between rough and smooth gives best power mixture. To get best economy mixture, lean until the engine shakes so bad you can't stand it - then enrich the mixture slowly until you can just barely stand it. Best economy will always be slightly rough.

On Friday, December 26, 2014 3:57:09 PM UTC-7, Bill T wrote:
Jean, NV. 2,833MSL, 100F jacks the DA.

I used to do mountain flying checkouts for flatland pilots in my Archer II. One warm afternoon we were taxiing out at Teluride, CO and the AWOS said the density altitude was 16,000'. My checkee looked alarmed and asked what the ceiling of the Archer was. I said 13,800' - no problem.

TEX is at 9,078' MSL and prior to 2009 had an 85' deep swayback in the middle of the 6,900' long runway with 800' drop-offs on three sides and a mountain on the forth. I knew the little Archer could get airborne in ground effect well before reaching the bottom of the dip and I could turn out over the valley at mid-field giving me good terrain clearance. If I flew the valley westbound it became lower as I went. I would either find a thermal or reach the airport at Montrose. I hit a 1,200 FPM thermal at Saw Pit, soared the Archer to 17,500 and cruised to APA.

Bill D wrote:
On Friday, December 26, 2014 9:59:26 AM UTC-7, Dan Marotta wrote:
Hi Bill,



We run DA in the 8,500+ range in the summer at Moriarty; the field
elevation at Silver West (C08) is 8,290' MSL so I expect DA was
considerably much higher. Back when the EGT and manifold pressure
gauges worked, I would lean on tow but, with a constant speed prop
it's better not to mess with it since cylinder head temperature is
too slow to respond.



Where are you flying?




On 12/25/2014 2:20 PM, Bill T wrote:



Roger on the leaning. Surprised you do not normally lean on tow.
In summer temps here I start leaning at 200-500 AGL, even for a 2K tow.
I can watch the RPM come up when I lean. DA is already at 5500 or higher on the ground.





--

Dan Marotta

I once sat next to a Lycoming engineer on an airline flight. His advice
for leaning an engine with CS prop at high DA was to ignore the gauges
and lean slowly until you feel a light stumble then enrich just enough so
that it smooths out.

Gauges, he said, can lead a pilot to do stupid things with a mixture
control. He said there was no chance whatsoever of harming an engine by
leaning above 5,000' DA. His main point is if an engine is running
strong and smooth, it's happy and lean engines are happier than rich ones.

It worked for me over many thousands of hours. I could cover the engine
analyzer and lean "by ear/feel" then look at the analyzer to find it was
showing that the engine was perfectly leaned. If you really do over-lean
an engine at high DA, it will just quit as you found out.

Still another tip from the Lycoming guy was to lean for taxi using the
technique above so the plugs stay clean.

Finally, the Lyc guy made an interesting economic argument. (using
current costs) If an O-540 averages 15 GPH and AVGAS costs an average of
$5/gal then a 2000 hr TBO run will have burned $150,000 worth of gas. An
O-540 overhaul is about $35,000 so it's easy to see one might burn more
dollars in gas by running rich than what, if anything, could be saved at overhaul.

When we first got a JPI for our power flying club's 182, I leaned it using
the fancy gauges and then by the method mentioned above.

It ended up pretty much at the same settings both times. YMMV

Pete

All good stuff but I gotta do as the owner wants. He'd rather spend
money for gas than "burn the engine up". I've tried to convince him
otherwise but, to keep the peace, I fly it like he wants it.

BTW, we get 100 degree days here at 6,200' though not as often as you do.


On 12/26/2014 4:00 PM, Bill T wrote:
The C-182RG I fly is not fuel injected and no good engine temp gauge. So that's what I do for cruise, lean until it stumbles then one rotation rich. Vernier mixture control. Learned that when I first learned to fly in C-150s. Same technique still works.

--
Dan Marotta

I've flown the Alaska Range and the Brooks range but, when I got to
Colorado, I "needed" a mountain checkout to fly a club 182. We went to
Leadville via Mosquito Pass (elev. 13,186'). On departure my CFI warned
me about density altitude. There was a booming thermal at the departure
end and you should have heard the alarm as I rolled into a turn and
climbed up to 14,000' before heading back to the Denver area. The
following weekend I gave him a ride in a glider.


On 12/26/2014 4:44 PM, Bill D wrote:
On Friday, December 26, 2014 3:57:09 PM UTC-7, Bill T wrote:
Jean, NV. 2,833MSL, 100F jacks the DA.
I used to do mountain flying checkouts for flatland pilots in my Archer II. One warm afternoon we were taxiing out at Teluride, CO and the AWOS said the density altitude was 16,000'. My checkee looked alarmed and asked what the ceiling of the Archer was. I said 13,800' - no problem.

TEX is at 9,078' MSL and prior to 2009 had an 85' deep swayback in the middle of the 6,900' long runway with 800' drop-offs on three sides and a mountain on the forth. I knew the little Archer could get airborne in ground effect well before reaching the bottom of the dip and I could turn out over the valley at mid-field giving me good terrain clearance. If I flew the valley westbound it became lower as I went. I would either find a thermal or reach the airport at Montrose. I hit a 1,200 FPM thermal at Saw Pit, soared the Archer to 17,500 and cruised to APA.

--
Dan Marotta

There was a booming thermal at the departure end and you should have heard the alarm as I rolled into a turn and climbed up to 14,000' before heading back to the Denver area.* The following weekend I gave him a ride in a glider.

Nothing like glider mountain flying experience. I spent big dollars to take a mountain flying course for helicopters, I ended up by teaching the instructor pilot many things he was not aware of due to my 2,600 hours flying the Sierras. If you want to learn to fly, fly a glider!