Wait until you have a tailwind.



"Charlie Axilbund" wrote in message
...
| On Tue, 01 May 2007 07:20:32 -0700, Dan_Thomas_nospam
wrote:
|
| Remember your training: check the POH. The setting you
want
| is the best range setting, which will give you the best
distance for RPM
| in a fixed-pitch airplane. If the airplane is really old
and doesn't
| have a range column in the cruise chart, you can find it
by reducing the
| power in cruise 100 RPM at a time, then allowing the
airspeed to
| stabilize and trimming for level flight. Keep track of
the airspeed
| decrease each time until you get a really large ASI
drop, then go back
| to the last setting.
|
| You are right in the real world, but my purpose was to
question whether
| fixed pitch airplanes should be charged by tach time. From
my
| understanding, though, best range is defined in terms of
fuel consumed
| not tach time; i.e. given 38 gallons of usable fuel, the
best range speed
| is the one that will get you the farthest. My somewhat
whimsical scenario
| was to propose a method, given that the charge for the
airplane is wet,
| that would minimize the cost to the renter. I was trying
to think of how
| I could get from point a to point b with minimum time on
the tach, not
| with minimum fuel. I can think of alternatives such as
doing the whole
| distance at Vx, but I was trying to think how I could keep
the rpms at a
| minimum. In the end, the best method to minimize rental
charges would be
| to minimize average rpms x time in flight. Since I have
absolutely no
| intention to try my method (or a flight at Vx), I have no
idea what would
| really work best.