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Variable prop setting

Asked by: 2100 views Aircraft Systems

I fly a Cessna cardinal with a 180 horse lycomings engine. Should the variable prop

be set to 2400 rpm and manifold pressure at 24 as soon as practical after take off. Or

should the prop remain in and 2700 rpm through out the climb until reaching your 

cruising altitude. We are having this discussion with claims that higher rpm will help

keep oil temperature cooler on a hot day.

 

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1 Answers



  1. Russ Roslewski on Jun 21, 2017

    I briefly looked at a sample POH for that airplane and it seems similar to the 182, in that the POH allows you to keep full power for the climb or reduced power.

    In that case, I’d do what I do in the 182, which is full power all the way up to climb altitude. Why would I want my climb to take longer? The sooner I get up to altitude the sooner I can set cruise power. I watch the engine temperatures, and if they start to get hot I will lower the nose but generally still keep the power in.

    Actually, the 182, I usually never touch the throttle between takeoff and beginning my descent. The MP goes down with altitude of course and up at cruise altitude (maybe 6000 or 8000 MSL), it’s right where I want it to be anyway.

    The 177 POH only gave “passenger comfort due to reduced noise” as the reason for the rpm reduction, which implies that keeping it full in is fine for the engine.

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