Oct 30, 2004
I took a flight today and captured all the flight data using the EFIS/One.
The link to the spreadsheet below has pages for each phase of flight, along with some analysis.
The flight started with a takeoff and climb at Vx to 3500 feet. (I had to stay under the Class B shelf) After I was clear of the Class B airspace, I continued the climb at 100KIAS from 3500' to 12500'.
Then, I proceeded to fly east or west, starting at 12500' and dropping 1000' each direction. I flew part of the leg at the maximum speed I could fly while keeping the prop below the 2600 RPM maximum. Then I pulled the power back to fly at 130KTAS.
At 6500', I also flew part of the leg at 100KTAS.
It was fun to look at the data, which pretty much confirmed what I already knew.
At 12,500', the throttle is nearly almost fully open. At all altitudes below that, I have to pull power some to keep the prop under 2600RPM.
The fuel flow was somewhat higher at 12,500 and 11,500, dropped as the altitude decreased, and then increased again as the altitude continued to decrease. I think the higher fuel flows at full throttle is because the carb automatically enriches somewhat at full throttle.
Overall, the plane's maximum speed is 157KTAS at 3500' and 8.9GPH. At 10,500' the speed is 153KTAS at 7.6GPH. (I need to do some more tests to see what the payoff in fuel savings is by pulling the throttle back just a bit at higher altitudes.)
At 130KTAS, the average fuel flow is 5 GPH at 6500' and above. This a nice savings at a respectable speed.
At 100KTAS and 6500', the fuel flow is 3GPH. I could fly for 12 hours and 1200nm at this rate!
Climb performance with the tanks half-full and solo from 700' to 3500' was about 1600 ft/min. From 3500' to 12,500' it took 11 minutes at 100KIAS, averaging 818ft/min. At 12,500' I was still climbing at 550 ft/min. Not bad for a fixed pitch prop.
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