Jamair........ you know you deserve it
VK2....damned that is one thing I can measure. The system logs everything, and I mean everything. It doesn't (coz i have no sensors) measure aileron, elevator and rudder position, but it could. there are spare inputs. no I will not be bothering either. Then you could really see how sloppy I am. But flap and trim it does as it displays these on the EMS, so a flap over speed is detectable
RVDT, Baffles and their seals is a biggie indeed. More than most realise
As for mixture, you are spot on again, in the circuit or at TOD
. Why would you jam the mixture in on descent. The fuel will not shock cool either (popular myth) but it is very wasteful and harmful to the engine. All those nice clean plugs and cylinders from good ground leaning, in flight operation, all messed up coming down. That would be stupid.
A point to note here for those folk who do not fully understand their fuel systems. TCM and Lycoming use different suppliers for fuel delivery (IO) and the Lycoming, which has the Precission or Bendix system looks after the F/A mix as you get into denser air on the way down. Any slight errors, usually gum/dye buildup makes it less accurate so you just tweek the mixture a bee's ...err whisker if it gets a bit rumbly on the way down.
On a TCM (CMI) you have a fuel pump that is coupled to the engine (as is the lyc) but the fuel delivery is proportional to RPM. So you lean against the flow by RPM, so as you descend into denser air, the mass airflow is not affecting the fuel flow, so it needs slightly more tweaking. on the other hand, the TCM with better airflow in the engine will run generally speaking much further LOP on descent anyway, so the problem is off set a little.
Lastly, Carby engines behave like the Bendix / Precission intake, metering against mass airflow, so only tweeks required if necessary.