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Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 20:56:33 -0500
From: Snowbird <snbird@ibm.net>
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Subject: Re: Sacred Art of Mixture Control (Re: Sudent using KATANA?)
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Hilton Goldstein wrote:
 
> Snowbird wrote in message <3610E5DA.6E06@ibm.net>...
> >Good idea.  IMO this Katana-dissing is a big tempest in a teapot.  I
> >think many student pilots who fly planes with manual
> >mixture control, but learn to fly near sea level, never learn
> >proper use of mixture control anyway.
 
> So if many people don't learn it, it's OK not to learn it?

>From what do you conclude that?  Not from anything
I've written when logically construed, I would hope.  

In case I haven't been sufficiently clear, let me recap:

We all agree that pilots need to learn and practice good leaning
technique.

One viewpoint on how to achieve this seems to be: student pilots
must train in planes with manual mixture control.  The underlying
premise seems to be the notion that anything which is not
taught during primary training will not be well learnt. 

My premise is, the PPL is called "a license to learn" because 
everything needed to be a safe and competent pilot in varied planes 
and conditions can not be learnt in a mere 40-80 hrs.  Based on
this premise, my viewpoint is that it doesn't much matter if a 
pilot learns to fly in a plane without a manual mixture control
any more than it matters if a pilot learns to fly in a plane without
manual flaps, or without a controllable prop, or without an electrical
system for that matter.   Conditions and systems not encountered
during PPL training will be mastered after PPL training.

People who want to be good pilots keep learning, and seek out the
knowledge and training they need, then practice until the usage
becomes habit.  They don't expect to be spoonfed by a random
1-hr-checkout CFI; they read the POH beforehand, seek out additional
information on new aspects of the checkout plane, and come prepared
with questions they expect to have answered.

My secondary point was that in many cases there might not be 
significant difference between the "mixture use skills" of a 
sea-level or flatlander student who trains in C150s vs a sea-level
student who trains in Katanas.  Mixture use frequently isn't 
taught in a very sophisticated way.

I think the difference between training in a Katana and training in
a Cessna is sort of like the difference between a student chef who has
never boiled water, and a student chef who's learned only to make
Ramen Noodles. Both have a lot to learn.  That's certainly where I
was, after PPL training in Cessnas.

I think it was clear that the rest of my post was examples of (IMO)
leaning practices in typical training, and neither practices I use 
nor practices I advocate today, so I'll just respond to this:

[me citing typical training practice]
> > We take off with the mixture full rich (not having leaned during 
> > taxi for fear we'd forget to enrichen for takeoff).
 
> Not leaning it during taxi is a pretty bad practise.  

Debatable.  Many (including my mechanic) would say, *leaning 
during taxi* is a pretty bad practice.  Clearly, the damage caused 
by one failure to enrichen prior to takeoff can be much more serious
(and expensive) than some plug fouling.  For this reason, I don't
know of a single FBO in my area which encourages leaning on the
ground.

For those interested, there is an excellent article on ground 
leaning at:
      http://www.sierra.net/skyranch/glean.htm

> This will increase the likelyhood of fouled spark plugs. 

The likihood of lead or carbon fouled spark plugs depends upon 
a number of factors besides manual mixture control, including 
the type of plugs used, the engine in question and whether it's 
burning oil, the fuel used, the idle mixture setting, and the 
power settings used to taxi.

Rod Farlee (I think) wrote on excellent description on carborator
design and why the latter is relevant a month or so ago.  Basically,
there are separate idle fuel jets with a separate, on-the-carb
mixture adjustment which feed fuel to the engine at low power.  

If plugs are severely fouled after taxiing at low power on a hot
day, it may be nothing the manual mixture control could correct. It
may instead be a result of an incorrectly set idle mixture adjustment.

Snowbird


