This ‘fly faster to stay away from 50Hr’ is something even I think about in the Warrior. But here’s a question based on ignorance: how would the single engine performance look for a failure at the mid point in terms of fuel available? OK, OK I know: in a single you’re swimming in the South Atlantic. But would this aeroplane be able to complete the trip single engine?
https://www.euroga.org/forums/aircraft/419-some-info-on-the-da42?page=25
See some posts starting #248 through 270.
Aveling wrote:
This ‘fly faster to stay away from 50Hr’ is something even I think about in the Warrior.
My cost under FAA regulations for an oil change, which is the principal item serviced every 50 hours on my similar Lycoming powered plane, is about $1/ flight hour. I actually change my oil/filter every 25 hours, raising the price of that service to $2/flight hr. Obviously, I could not save money by going faster given the square law which governs fuel consumption per trip as a function of speed.
boscomantico wrote:
Sure, I was only referring to the engine longevity aspect.
@Boscomantico, I think one or more engine users have in house infrastructure and staff set up to deal with the need for costly periodic service and replacement. Research activities could (hopefully) reduce that cost by extending the intervals – real time diagnostics etc. on heavily instrumented aircraft that would support component and engine replacement based on early prediction of failure, and possibly influence operational practices. I guess its possible the practical results of that activity, if any, may get distributed to the field in the future but I don’t believe the commercial engine OEM or standard category aircraft are involved.
This ‘fly faster to stay away from 50Hr’ is something even I think about in the Warrior. But here’s a question based on ignorance: how would the single engine performance look for a failure at the mid point in terms of fuel available? OK, OK I know: in a single you’re swimming in the South Atlantic. But would this aeroplane be able to complete the trip single engine?
My longest flight in a DA42 (to date) was 5:40 airborne, 73% powered 147 TAS at 4000ft (kept low due to headwinds). We were burning 11.2 USG/hr.
Sure, I was only referring to the engine longevity aspect.
boscomantico wrote:
How could one expect to have any really singificant empirics for the Centurion engine, which, in the pverall Picture (number of millions of flight hours), it is still an exotic engine?
The fuel consumption can be assumed to be linear to the output. Then, it’s more an airframe question what a good power setting is in terms of MPG.
JasonC wrote:
Assuming there is no thermal issue why wouldn’t you run MCP
Noise, fuel burn, exceeding Vno (in my case)…..
We don’t even have any empirically proven and generally accepted “best practices” for Lycos and Contis (i.e. which is better? high power or low power operation? ROP or LOP? High RPM or low RPM? etc.), which have been around in many thousands for 70 years. How could one expect to have any really singificant empirics for the Centurion engine, which, in the overall picture (number of millions of flight hours), is still an “exotic” engine?
One will simply have to do what one “thinks” is good and live with the results, but there will never be definitive answer. The POH (written at the very beginning of the life cycle of the product) is also useless for establishing that.
Why don’t you fly it faster then?
Actually I usually try to do but it’s compromise between fewer landings and longer legs and cheaper fuel on some airports (e.g. Jet A1 at Sarajevo is €0.40 so if I land there on my way to Greece and refuel with full tanks I can fly to Athens and back without refueling in Greece and then refuel at Sarajevo again before returning to Croatia). I know that the difference usually is not so big but calculating makes me happy 
europaxs wrote:
Don’t the Thielerts even have 100% MCP (however – who would run an engine that way in cruise?), whereas the Austros have a MCP well below that (92%?)?
Assuming there is no thermal issue why wouldn’t you run MCP – in that engine is it know to degrade life?
