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- Oct 12, 2014
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I was out feeling out the Parrakeet with some acro today... have I mentioned how much I like this plane? 
Anyway,this is the first aerobatic plane I've owned with a Continental engine (unless you count the stupid stuff I did in my T-Craft when I was twentysomething), and things are different. With the Lycomings in my Starduster and Hatz, you pretty much never touch the carb heat, what with the heated intake, unless you suspect ice. But with the Continental's icemaker reputation, you're supposed to proactively use carb heat when reducing power for descent and landing, that's how I was taught in C-150s years ago and how I'm flying the 'keet (except when I forget... gotta retrain my brain, it's been 35+ years).
But what about when doing acro? Should one pull carb heat when, for example, coming down the back side of a loop or hammerhead? Or is it, as I assume, a short enough duration that it shouldn't be necessary? Obviously it'd be appropriate to use heat with a longer power reduction as when doing a spin (which I haven't tried yet in this plane).
One other thing I noticed today, really an observation, not a question, is that the C-85's rpm seems to be much more sensitive to airspeed than the O-290s in my last two planes. In any plane (assuming a constant throttle setting) you'd expect the rpm to drop with airspeed and vice versa, but the effect seems much more significant with this engine, and it takes longer to get back to speed, or for rpm to stabilize after a power change. Not a problem, just different.
Anyway,this is the first aerobatic plane I've owned with a Continental engine (unless you count the stupid stuff I did in my T-Craft when I was twentysomething), and things are different. With the Lycomings in my Starduster and Hatz, you pretty much never touch the carb heat, what with the heated intake, unless you suspect ice. But with the Continental's icemaker reputation, you're supposed to proactively use carb heat when reducing power for descent and landing, that's how I was taught in C-150s years ago and how I'm flying the 'keet (except when I forget... gotta retrain my brain, it's been 35+ years). But what about when doing acro? Should one pull carb heat when, for example, coming down the back side of a loop or hammerhead? Or is it, as I assume, a short enough duration that it shouldn't be necessary? Obviously it'd be appropriate to use heat with a longer power reduction as when doing a spin (which I haven't tried yet in this plane).
One other thing I noticed today, really an observation, not a question, is that the C-85's rpm seems to be much more sensitive to airspeed than the O-290s in my last two planes. In any plane (assuming a constant throttle setting) you'd expect the rpm to drop with airspeed and vice versa, but the effect seems much more significant with this engine, and it takes longer to get back to speed, or for rpm to stabilize after a power change. Not a problem, just different.
