Union Thug wrote:
The gist ought to be maintaining proficency with minimal wear and tear
on your plane. Lycoming recomends no more than 100 degrees per minute
temp decline in CHT. Those of you who fly with an engine analizer will
find that this not difficult to acomplish and still get the benefit of
practice. Take a look at glider tow operations. These guys do low
speed high power climbs and then dive back to the pattern to do it
again 4 to 5 times an hour all day long and most of them regularly
make it to recomended TBO (The careful ones). Ask them how it is done
sometime.

The two tow planes where I learned to fly gliders had their fair share
of engine problems. But I still don't buy Jay's statement that "Repeated
application of full-power-to-idle throttle management (as done in
go-arounds, touch & goes, and engine out practice) will wear your engine
(and prop governor, fuel pump, throttle linkage, etc.) out faster than
NOT applying full power to idle." There are no studies/stats to support
that assumption. An engine that never does touch-n-goes, go-arounds or
engine-out practice can break down just as fast as or faster than one
that does. No guarantees either way.

Isn't taking off applying full power to idle? and isn't landing and
shutting down going from full power to idle? That's wear and tear. But
you have to fly it to keep it running well, and you can't fly it without
some wear and tear. You can't stay proficient if you don't practice some
airwork that involves occasional full-power-to-idle throttle management
(or maybe I should say some of us can't), either.