I found the following waiting for me when I got home. Really hit close to home, because I was thinking about riding home with them!
Great course this last weekend. I want to thank you for emphasizing the importance of noticing a turbo failure and need to get the plane on the ground. On my way back to Los Angeles from Ada yesterday, abeam Phoenix in my 58P at FL240, the left engine MP went from 33 in to about 30 in. When I pushed the throttle up to regain 33 in, the MP stayed at 31. Then, I pushed both throttles to TOGA and got 31 on the left and 37 on the right. At the same time, we detected an acrid smell in the cabin. So, we declared an emergency, shut down the left engine and diverted into Phoenixs Deer Valley. Flew the rest of the way home on Southwest. They're looking at the plane now. Thanks again for the very timely emergency pre-brief :-
We hope most don't see the benefits so dramatically.
But while typing this message, I got another, but more benign:
John and company,
Good seminar this weekend. I had completed the on-line course which really helped me put things together, thanks for the advance work opportunity. Everything was very professional and you guys don’t just present - you “teach”. And I did enjoy meeting all of the Bo people too.
Yesterday flying home I was into the wind, a lot of wind. I knew I would be close of fuel but I was going to be too close. I thought about a fuel stop along the way but then decided to use the “go far” mode. Of course, I was a bit hesitant as I had never run my plane LOP for more than a minute as I figured it would blow up. But fresh from the APS school, I thought I knew enough to experiment.
I messed around with power settings and I was very surprised that the numbers worked out. Where I settled in on I got a 3 KT decrease in TAS for a 3.7 Gal/hr fuel flow from ROP. I included a picture from my display showing the numbers. What is of interest is the “Time to DEST” and “Time to Empty” leave me with a 1 hour (plus I still had 20 gal in a nacelle tank) reserve. Before I went to LOP power settings, I was going to need a stop as it was less than an hour and I was too far from home to cut it that close.
(Note: the numbers on the JPI are screwy – JPI does not do Pounds well. I am changing it back because all the LOP people all talk gallons and it is where I should be now – FF is in LBS, and the tanks are in GAL even though the headings say the opposite)
I would have never believed the engine would run cooler had I not done the APS thing and I really thought; my plane would be different. The CHT’s all run 300+ ROP and one on each engine will run at ~370, and that is 75-100 ROP. They all ran 50 DF lower LOP than I consider normal. The TIT is 100 higher, but still in a good spot.
I saved an hour that I would never get back from not stopping for fuel and $144 to boot. I only had installed GAMI’s last week and I think I need to do some adjusting as the spread is 1+ but even so the engines only ran with a slight roughness. But I intend to get them in the zone as this LOP stuff works.
I wanted to learn more about operating my engines and I had wanted more range on my plane. I got both.
I did enjoy the seminar and learned too so it was a win-win for me.
Regards,
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Best...
John Deakin
Advanced Pilot Seminars
(Next LIVE Seminar October 24-26, 2014, Ada OK)