Jeez, I know we are supposed to try and operate our machines as well as we can, but this is all a bit OTT!
Many people here say that operating a machine as the book says is unlikely to get you to TBO, I'm sorry but B*LL*CKS. I have only ever had one machine not reach TBO and that was due to one cylinder deciding to exit engine left due to a manufacturing flaw.
If the engines we currently use had a bit more modern design in them, then all of this would be redundant. A good well mapped ECU should do all of this for you, why leave it to the most fallible part of the equipment? ie. Us.
We don't blow away 30% of our fuel, our PPL customers do that for us. I would far rather they leaned properly and saved some fuel, but most haven't been taught properly how to do it.............. We always try, but there does seem to be a lot of resistance to moving the red knob incase of damage. When people fly with me they are encouraged to do it. Away from my prying eyes, there is little I can do.
People seem to delight in saying the POH is wrong and what would the a/c manufacturer know about engines. I would bet they know a damn sight more than most pilots and since we all love banging on about how the POH is so important, why is it suddenly a load of rubbish?
Without fancy pants digital monitoring, it is impossible to see what is really going on, so operating per the POH is all you can do. So for those without the benefit of this tuff, if the POH is wrong, tell me how it should be operated?