Jay, I concur with your statement. Will you agree with this one? "Other
considerations aside, it's safer to not operate near red line."

Smarter? Yes.

Safer? If so, immeasurably so.

At full throttle your engine wears somewhat faster, and you spend more $$$
on gas when running near redline. (Of course, on the other hand, you get
there faster, so you're running your engine for less time, total.)

I submit that doing so is not "unsafe," or the incredibly anal FAA would
have already forced the manufacturers to set our redlines even LOWER than
they already are.

As evidence, just watch the training fleet that circles my hotel every day,
hour after hour. From full throttle, to idle, to full throttle, to idle,
day after day, for months and years on end. THAT is 100 times harder on
your engine than simply running it for an hour at full throttle, yet I don't
see trainers falling out of the sky.

Our engines, as old and technologically outdated as they are, are incredibly
reliable, at least partly because they are designed to turn very slowly
(relatively speaking) -- even at full throttle.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"