Lean of Peak Now? Soon?

[Ernie Martin]

The increasing cost of Avfuel and a recent demonstration of lean of peak (LOP) operation has led me to ponder again this method of operation.

The demonstration was a lengthy trip I recently made with Nick Bailey in his 337G. We ferried his aircraft 1000 nautical miles over Caribbean waters from St. Thomas Virgin Islands (STT) to Miami's Opa Locka airport (OPF). For testing purposes, and because I felt that reliability would be thus enhanced, we operated one engine at LOP and the other one at ROP.

As expected, both engines operated flawlessly and the LOP engine saved about 2 gallons per hour. At the prevailing fuel prices (we refueled once in The Bahamas) trip savings would have been about $140 if both engines had operated LOP.

With fuel prices on the rise, and the possibility that the new FAA funding structure will increase the tax on fuel, those of you still operating ROP per the POH might want to consider again LOP operation and do the tradeoff analysis needed to determine if it's sensible for you, or the fuel price at which it becomes sensible. My position on the subject -- that under certain circumstances it's beneficial -- has not changed; it may be found in the third message (dated 09-06-04) of this message thread:

http://www.337skymaster.org/messages...&threadid=1208

For those of you new to the subject, this thread also contains other messages from experts on both sides of the fence, including links to published papers on the matter; please note that the link to the Lycoming paper has changed to http://www.lycoming.com/support/trou...es/SSP700A.pdf

Ernie