Leaning the Mixture for a High Density Altitude Takeoff 

"If you're like me, and I know I am ..." That is a great line. I am going to steal it.

Every time i hear Rod it reminds me of all the flying lessons i took in FS9. Really good training.

I love the use of humor in imparting knowledge, being an aspiring instructor I seek to have elements of such humor to allow students to feel more at home and at ease. Well done

I miss this voice on fs 2004. Wish the newest version also had the lesson he would give. Very valuable.

Rob you are a legend in the GA community. Would love to meet and have a beer. Thanks Michael.

I found this video on leaning since I have a "75 C-182 and am in the process of installing a engine monitor, and oh my gosh, that -150, N18716 is the airplane I soloed in back in 1983 out of a 1800" gravel strip in WA state when I was 16! It looks great! Great videos as well Rod. Cheers!

100% lntuitive lnstruction Training Sir,How l wish You Are Always Here Sir, God Bless You . From Ghana.

Excellent as always, thank you Rod.

Wow! I didn't even realize they didn't lean the mixture in that famous accident. Incredible

Thanks for the videos. Keep them coming.

I’ve been a CFI since 2013 and would love to have him as my CFI

You rock Rod! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience. I greatly enjoy your positive sense of humor :-D It makes your already informative books & videos even more enjoyable!!!

Very good video!!! Thanks very much

Yes! I saw that video a few weeks back and said the same thing!

I've heard Rod Machado speak live at least 10 times at aviation conventions and Oshkosh. I never "tire" of his stories. I'm a CFI and teach mixture use. Most POH's discuss this topic.

Great video - thanks!

Excellent. Thanks

Awesome video thank you

Rod is very smart guy.

So good!

Thanks. I was wondering what that red lever was for.

Having learned to fly in high density altitude (base elevation about 5300 feet -- on hot summer days, the density altitude would often get close to 9000 feet...), I always thought leaning for max power was a normal part of run-up!

it would be so great if there was a similar fun e-learning course for CARS ( Canadian Air Regulations ).

This brings me back to my 135 days and flying out if RNO, or tahoe... And soaring ridges east to get altitude to cross over west bound... And my pax had to take s bus back to Salinas... Helps my cognitive decline

Hi Rod- I've heard that you don't do this procedure with a fuel-injected engine, as there is no enrichment valve and the fuel meters for best power considering airflow?

It still amazes me how many pilots I fly with that never touch the mixture during flight (even instructors). As Rod points out in this video leaning isn't about just about saving gas.

you're still #1 in mt book

Love your vids! wish you were my instructor haha

Nice video, I got a question. Most Cessna takeoff charts show pressure altitude for distance over 50ft obstacle. How much percent should you add to this for high density altitude days?

No stereo on this video...?

Rod thank you so much you are the greatest on RU-vid in addition to the fact that you have the coolest last name.

yep @ 7:45 Our prop with 500 hours has just been repaired on our Vixxen A32 . Any more stone chips and a $6000(AUD) replacement is required. Gravel everywhere at YCAB and $300,000 sitting in the airfield committee bank account. Figure that out..?

oh your good man .. thankyou

Our Rotax powered light sport aircraft does not have mixture control...

On RU-vid lookup "Leaning The Advanced Class" by Savvy Aviation. This guy is an expert on the subject. Go there now!

I just strap some RATO bottles to the side of my plane, and light them up on takeoff. 5 G's of acceleration at takeoff should be good enough. And an accelerating vertical climb in a Cessna is pretty cool.

Lots of good information but you missed one point about high density altitude flying, that is starting the engine. I used to be with Black Forest Gliderport in Colorado (elevation 7200 feet) and we'd often have pilots fly in to fly gliders. They would try to start their engines only to have them start, belch black smoke and die from flooding. One of the instructors would usually go help them get their engine running. One day this guy in a Baron got one engine running and was having the other one refusing to run after starting. I went out to help him but he informed me that he didn't need some Cub pilot to tell him how to fly. He cranked on it until he finally burned up his starter.

How do you lean for a go-around when arriving at a high DA airport? You don't have the luxury of being able to do a full throttle runup first. Just leave it at the cruise mixture setting? Or maybe get down to pattern altitude and do a full throttle run when you're 10 minutes out?

Rod, quick question. Doing this (full throttle) run up, are you suggesting we do this in place of the usual 1700-1800 RPM run-up where we check the mags, or is this in addition to? If in addition to, would you do this before or after the mag check? Thank you!

PINE AIR FRESHENER 😂😂😂😂 You wild

I saw the crash a couple of months ago...really painful, especially because the pilot didn't get the plane back on the ground before the trees came.

Classic

Why we would enrich the mixture to the best power not lean it when we have" hight density altidue"= low air density ?

Well, you _almost_ covered the case where you've got more thrust than brakes during the run-up; those of you with 1947 Ercoupes and factory brakes know what I mean... Since I've got full time EGT and CHT for each cylinder and they all run pretty close, I just 1) lean during taxi to the point that when I apply full throttle for takeoff it sags noticeably; then I know I need to enrichen but that I'm already on the lean side of peak. 2) I richen to get max power for takeoff by feel and sound, but 3) I've got EGT and CHT to watch during initial climb out so I don't get into the dangerously hot part of the engine operating envelope. That 15% automatic enrichment is great if you aren't monitoring temps, but if you are it's just throwing fuel away if you know you for sure you can stay out of the hot zone. You can do this all by feel if you KNOW the mixture distribution is even, and you can't know that unless you have temps for each cylinder. As an extra bonus, I go wide open throttle on takeoff and for the rest of the flight I manage power with mixture and carb heat- that is to say, I lean to drop the RPM to the bottom of the green in cruise climb and keep coming back after leveling off. Then if I want to climb after that, I richen NOT with mixture, but by pulling carb heat. This is a safe technique but not one most people would use because in cruise I'm running "acceptably rough"- which is a state where shutting off one mag gives a 200 or 300 RPM drop. Then pulling some carb heat jumps the RPM up about 200 RPM and without changing anything else, you get a nice cruise climb. In cruise I'm shooting for 1.316 times the max L/D IAS (best range speed) because THAT speed- the Carsten Speed- is where you get the most _speed_ for the _least drag._ It's NOT max range speed but it gets you there while you've still got daylight. In fact you can make up for lost time by going high to get the TAS up and by skipping an intermediate fuel stop since the fuel burn is so far down. . Some will object that leaned that much takes you out of the MAX ECONOMY mixture region, and it does- but I'm burning less than 4 gallons an hour with a C-85 and contrary to the old conventional wisdom, it doesn't "oxidize" the valves. CHT is the only temp that actually matters. I find that the power adjustment using carb heat is much easier than using a sensitive mixture knob since it takes much more travel with carb heat to get the same change. (All this should take into account the winds aloft- I lean much farther going downwind since a really puny power setting keeps you in the air longer so you take advantage of the favorable wind. Going upwind, I don't get quite as stingy with the fuel burn... you want to speed up a bit since it decreases the time you're penalized by an adverse wind.) One last thing: if you want to start leaning below 4000 ft, note the density altitude given by the airport weather recording and just climb however many feet are required to make 4000 (which in Texas is often pattern altitude)...OR, you can add carb heat as soon as you clear the terrain to give the ENGINE a 4000 ft density altitude BEFORE the airplane sees 4000 ft of density altitude. If that's not clear, I'm saying that carb heat lets you operate the airframe and the engine at two _different_ density altitudes simultaneously...which is _sometimes_ useful. Bottom line is, I go wide open throttle at the start of the takeoff roll and never retard it until I'm on downwind. That reduces "pumping losses" against a tilted throttle butterfly plate. Every other power change is done by mixture or carb heat. You might find my engine roughness a bit disconcerting, but if Peter Garrison could regularly cross the Atlantic in a homebuilt using the "acceptable roughness" rubric, it's good enough for me. And my engine loves it- operated this way, my CHTs stay down around 350F and there's not a spec of carbon fouling to be seen- you can easily double your TBO this way.

One cannot do a full throttle runup in many high performance taildraggers.

Or, better yet, if you have a engine monitor, pick a cylinder and note the EGT when taking off at sea level, probably somewhere between 1200 and 1300 degreees. On your next high density take off, lean the mixture and match the EGT on your chosen cylinder and lean in the climb. You will have max HP from take off to level off. Simple eh?

Awesome video! But it’s simple, buy a Rotax 915 iS and you’ll never have to worry about density altitude again. 😋

Is Rod the Bob Ross of aviation?

This seems like more than just a fuel mixture issue, these look like 4 huge guys that hadn't missed a meal in a while, I'm thinking this was also a weight and balance issue, and quite possibly too much luggage and camera gear as well.

A clear example of a pilot who hasn't understood what the controls actually do.

Why does my right ear has to suffer

7 persons mistakenly hit the dislike button.

If you don't want to have to lean your engine in Leadville Colorado, elevation 10,152 feet then get a jet engine or turbo prop engine as the fuel governor will lean it for you. You have no means available to lean a Jet or turbo prop engine.

Hi, Rod, This video was very helpful, but then just in the middle of it, you made a comment that distracted me from your video so that I didn't want to watch any more of it until I wrote to you. You said, "It makes me feel as uncomfortable as a Border Patrol Agent at a 5 de Mayo festival." I happen to have Mexican family members that do not have any problem with the US controlling its borders. According to the following article from a writer in the border town of Nogales, Arizona, half of all border patrol agents are Latinos. Yup, half: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/12/mexican-american-border-patrol-agent-vincente-paco. And they don't all hide out during 5 de Mayo celebrations. ( Read the page of the Nogales Arizona 5 de Mayo committee acknowledging assistance by the US Border Patrol, among others.) bordereco.com/events/2013/05/08/scc-cinco-de-mayo-celebration-hugh-success/. These topics are very complex, and very distracting. Were you trying to help Mexican Americans practice recovering from distractions from an Examiner during Practical Test?

Yeah I thought I was reading that wrong. The term "High density altitude" should be changed. Firt time i read it i assumed that there was HIGHER density at altitude not lower. This used to be refered to as an airpocket where there would be pockets of lower density air during flights and the plane would suddenly lose altitude a few hundred feet.... this should be reworded..high density altitude just doesnt explain ...lower pressure than expected at altitude.

Cars have had electronic fuel injection for 40 years now... 😞

Good video, helpful. Drop the INS vs. Hispanics joke. Don't drag politics into every f'ing thing.