by Rich » Fri Feb 23, 2018 1:57 pm
The business of leaving full rich, in my experience, leads to pilots who have learned that using the mixture control is dangerous. When I was instructing I often ran into low-time pilots who were taught to never touch the mixture control. And where I did most of the instructing way back when, full rich was not appropriate for takeoff, especially in the summer months. AND using full rich mixture in the low-power phase more than necessary is more likely to treat you to lead buildup on the plugs.
The deal is you'll reduce power on downwind anyway. Just pull the mixture back 1/3 or so. I'm no longer in training, per se, but it is my practice to not enrich for full-stop landing at all. It stays where it was all the way to shutdown. The exception is a go-around, of course.
The business of leaving full rich, in my experience, leads to pilots who have learned that using the mixture control is dangerous. When I was instructing I often ran into low-time pilots who were taught to never touch the mixture control. And where I did most of the instructing way back when, full rich was not appropriate for takeoff, especially in the summer months. AND using full rich mixture in the low-power phase more than necessary is more likely to treat you to lead buildup on the plugs.
The deal is you'll reduce power on downwind anyway. Just pull the mixture back 1/3 or so. I'm no longer in training, per se, but it is my practice to not enrich for full-stop landing at all. It stays where it was all the way to shutdown. The exception is a go-around, of course.