 Methods for altitude changes
>
> _Always_ rich for a climb? At altitudes above a few thousand feet MSL, it
> seems that a rich mixture just slows me down.
>
When you're climbing, airspeed is less and engine power is higher,
generating more heat in the air cooled cylinders. A rich mixture
helps keep cylinder temps under control because more fuel is
evaporated than is burned. Nothing is automatic with these old
engines, though Teledyne has developed a single lever Fadec system
that supposedly takes care of this with electronic monitoring. Still,
even Fadec should enrich the mixture in climb. Pilots with engine
monitors (JPI, EI) may not go to full rich when climbing since they
can monitor cylinder temps in real time.
If you want a good education on piston engine management, read through
John Deakin's articles in Avweb.
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