There are so many variables it's no wonder each airplane is different. N150DM is a farily clean bird and will do spot on 150 mph at full throttle, level flight, with wheel pants, down low (2500 feet) and she has to turn about 2850 rpm to achieve that speed (only done for test purposes, not to be repeated often). The prop is a McCauley 74" with 57" pitch. Running at redline, 2700 rpm, the speed is an honest 140 mph and the fuel flow is somewhere around 10 gph...more than the speed is worth to me. Running 2600 rpm the speed is around 130-135 and fuel flow drops to about 8 gph. 2400 rpm yields an easy 120 mph with the fuel burn just under 8 gph. All of my times are tach time, not by the clock. No Hobbs in Delta Mike. With a cruise prop I don't know what would happen, but the pitch is coarse enough for me now and I wouldn't want to lose any climb ability, which is a valuable asset in our mountainous country. Performance wise, I have found it entertaining to pass up or leave behind the unsuspecting 172 driver but I will admit I do envy him/her the comfort of the larger airplane. Yesterday I helped a friend reinstall the wings on his Cessna 175 Skylark which he has converted to a taildragger with a Continental 0-470 engine. Those mods along with a whole new panel full of high zoot avionics makes for a VERY nice airplane. I'm anxious to see it fly and find out what the performance figures shake out to. The one thing I'm sure most of us would not trade him though will be...yeah, you guessed it...the fuel burn <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
Last edited by Dan; 07/15/04 02:59 AM.
