Hey Jeff...I accompanied a buddy up to Olympia recently, (twice, once to take his airplane up for some work, then to retrieve it), and pushed 150DM hard so he wouldn't need to back off his Cherokee 180 too much. At 6500/5500 msl our TAS was averaging about 140+ mph (indicated airspeed was less of course, but our GS and TAS agreed). Unfortunately DM burns 10 gph at those speeds so I seldom run it there, although all the engine temps are OK. What does the Cardinal burn at similar cruise speeds? If I back off 100 rpm my fuel burn falls to 8 gph, which is what I always use for flight planning. The speed reduction is in the 5 mph neighborhood. At today's prices, 2 gph for an extra 5 mph isn't so attractive. By the way, we found Thun Field, just south of Seattle to be an Excellent place for Fuel and Eats, in case you get up into that area.
Last edited by Dan; 05/10/04 03:15 PM.
