Chris,

And you need to pull the
throttle back before pulling the prop control back, and vice versa for
increasing RPM


Uhm, well, good in principle, but not necessarily true.

Example: You're in the climb after take-off, passing what you consider a
safe altitude to start reducing power (1000 AGL for me). Many people are
taught to pull back to 25/25 (IOW 25 MP and 2500 RPM). That is actually
very hard on the engine. The reason is that you're in a high power, bad
cooling situation (less cooling airflow in the climb at low airspeed).
At full throttle, extra fuel is added to provide extra cooling. By
pulling back to 25, you lose that. And most POHs allow you to pull back
the RPM to 2500 and remain at full power. In the Tobago we fly, we pull
back to 2450 (top of the green) while leaving the throttle at full.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)