cavelamb himself wrote:
J.Kahn wrote:

It forces you to use a certain minimum prop pitch to avoid
overspeeding it in flight.

An O-320 makes 120 hp at 2300 rpm and 26". At wide open throttle at
SL and 2250 it is probably around 130 hp. Add a couple thousand feet
and 125 hp at the start of the roll sounds about right.

Any fixed pitch airplane is the same. A 150 with a stock O200 doesn't
have 100 hp available while static either, probably more like 80-85.
So all things being equal you still have 50% more power available than
stock.

You know, we ALL really ought to go get another hour in a 150 every once
in a while.

When I was in high school, the 150 was IT! WoW!

But I flew one a couple of years ago and the prevelant thought was,
"What happened? This used to be FUN".




With all the old wives' tales about running constant speed engines
"oversquare" (rpm below mp) it's amusing to note that fixed pitch
aircraft are way oversquare all through their takeoff and climb phase
until they're going fast enough.

John

Actually, I'm starting to look for a 150 to play around with and for the
kids to learn in next spring. They fly about as well as most
airplanes, with a really good useful load for that size. The 150 does a
lot of things reasonably well and are becoming dirt cheap as the big
flight schools unload them. Where else can you get a 600 lb useful
load, electrics, really powerful fowler flaps, etc all for 20k.
Everybody else hates them, but I like the '64/65 straight tails. If
you block out the front half of the airplane in a picture, it looks like
an A-26.

Apparently aileron gap seals make the ailerons much lighter and
snappier, probably the biggest complaint in handling.

John