Leaning
Hi Gaseous,
Interesting stuff.
Without any reliable method to find 'lean of peak' I'll leave well alone and guess that most heli pilots will do the same.
The prospect of wrecking the engine ( at least) just to save a few quid doesn't gel with me. Also, whilst I accept that these engines run too rich I dont believe that there is any risk of long term damage to anything other than the plugs
I have an EDM700 in my Robin 180 ( Lycoming 360) with a 'lean find' mode. In the early days I used to go through the 'lean find' exercise only to find that the optimum setting for anything below 5000ft was pretty much full rich anyway so I dont bother now.
At 500 hours from new the engine is as sweet as the day I took delivery of the aircraft.
I am also very happy with the 40 litres per hour it burns. 'Saving a tenner' on a long trip has too many downsides for me. The heli is a whole new ball game with sudden engine failure likely to be the first indication that you pulled the knob out too far.
Happy to accept your reasons and logic - it just isnt for me ( especially with only 46 hours tt in my heli logbook).
All the best and thanks again for the fascinating posts. As a newbie I have found them extremely helpful.
Hairyplane