jabowocky
Your absolute statement that "everyone else is wrong" is correct for the 2 % of the GA fleet where the aircraft is fully instrumented and you always fly the same aircraft. The second point is important because all engines run a bit differently and the true value of engine organizers is seeing the subtle deviations from normal that are indicators of a potential problem that you will only get to know from hours and hours of watching
that engine.
For the other 98 % of the GA community and other than Peter 337, what I am guessing is everybody else reading this thread, your advice is completely and utterly useless.
The vast majority of GA pilots will be flying aircraft with only the basic engine gauges of RPM, oil pressure, oil temperature and ammeter. "Advanced" engine instruments likely not found in most aircraft, will only consist of a basically useless single probe EGT, and or CHT and maybe a carb temp gauge.
Therefore IMHO the knowledge delta isn't about a pilots not knowing how to run LOP, it is how to properly lean a carburated engine with no good EGT information.
Similarly the lack of knowledge and skill for recognizing and dealing with carb ice at the PPL level is truly frightening.
Finally while crude and insensitive the oil press and oil temp gauge will usually give you warning of an impending internal engine mechanical failure if you pay attention to what they are saying.
One pet peeve of mine is how few instructor insist on checking that the engine is making full static RPM at the beginning of the takeoff run.
A while ago I was asked to help out at a flying school. On the first lesson, flying a C 150, I thought the engine was a bit rough on runup. Sure enough on the takeoff as soon as the student had applied full throttle I checked the RPM and it was 150 RPM below the POH minimum static RPM range. We rejected the takeoff and maintenance confirmed a dead cylinder and metal in the filter which resulted in an engine change. The sad part of this story was that when the news of the engine condition became known the dispatcher said " You know the instructors have been complaining for 2 weeks that that airplane was a dog "
Ok you and Peter can now get on with obsessing about LOP operation in privately owned high performance aircraft
And goldeneagle pilot still waiting for your thoughts on "keeping it simple"
