i disagree
i have been asked what kind of an turbine airplane i am flying when i get to the 20K altitude in the IV-P and when I tell them my fuel burn there is a gasp from the other end.
thats why we pressurized the airplane for.
i keep my oxygen mask handy and stay about 22,000 it likes
to fly at that level
lean of peak i get 16.5 gallons/hr at that altitude
but the problem is cooling on the climb
you have to get everything right specially the engine baffling and all the mods for getting extra air around cylinder number 2 which is usually the hottest. You also will need to get about 44-45 gallons/hr on takeoff to get enough power to climb. I cannot go over 15,000 before i am forced to go lean of peak
then continue the climb at a slower pace. I havent had the time to wiggle with the baffling.
What I do is look at the winds aloft i have seen 330 kts when conditions are right at altitude coming east. If the wind is very strong going west i will stay low in the 18,000 but it all depends on weather. There is usually a lot of stuff between 15,000 and 21,000 feet. I found that the evo is more flexible with weather at 28,000 and when i fly a friend citation 3 there is usually NO weather at 43,000 but of course we cant get there. Even whn going west at that altitude the jetstream becomes weak and initially I did not believe it.
From: "ROGG@aol.com" <ROGG@aol.com>
To: lml@lancaironline.net
Sent: Saturday, January 5, 2013 1:54 PM
Subject: [LML] Re: IV-P Cruise Altitudes?
like driving a moped on the autobahn
In a message dated 1/5/2013 11:33:24 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
olsen25@comcast.net writes:
Greetings,
As I build my IV-P kit, I’m always watching with
anticipation the other IV-P planes out there and how you guys are using
them. One thing that has struck me is that it appears most of you with
piston IV-P’s are flying them around in the low- to mid-teens rather than in
the flight levels. I’m curious why this is the case… Trips not
long enough to justify the climb? You want to stay VFR?
Performance or handling issues up high? Etc.
Would love to hear from some of you on the operational
practicalities of using your IV-P as a X/C traveling machine. My
expectation is that I’ll be using mine a lot on lots of 1,000nm X/C flights
and am planning to fly in the FL220-FL250 range.
Thoughts?
Dan Olsen
N320DK – 320MKII, 700hrs
IV-P in
progress