Last week we had some discussion on idle speeds, and I think the consensus was to keep it around 2000 or a little under. Just for information for other canard pusher people, I think 2000 is going to be a real problem for me. At the current 1850 setting with the big 3 66/84 prop I have on she's pushing hard against the brakes. I think I could taxi the length of the runway at idle and be doing 30/40 kts at the end. On a short (3400) runway the only way to stop might be kill the engine once on the ground, or even on short final. So I need to get the idle speed way down. John Slade (more power than I know what to do with)

You're right John.   I don't see how people get away with 2000 rpm.  I could have done that on the earlier (drag chute) cowl configuration, but as the plane gets cleaned up, it's going to be hard to slow down. 

On the old configuration, I could idle down to 1000-1200 rpm pretty easily, but I set it at 1500, which is about 700 prop rpm.  This is about as low as I can comfortably go now though.  Until I re-work the intake to get the injectors closer to the engine, I have to consider the artificially low rpm that I will get if I chop the throttle suddenly to idle.  With the idle set at 1500, I sag to about 1200, stinking rich, until I open the throttle a bit to correct it.  If I set the idle to 1200 now, the artificially low idle would likely drop to 900, and the engine might quit.   Eventually, when I really get this thing working properly (with the new intake), I'd like to get the prop speed as low as possible, which I see as one of the advantages to having a redrive. 

Cheers,

Rusty (winds not so bad as forecast...)