In a Brantly, this crude fuel flow gauge they come with is the only guidance you have for leaning. You note your real-time cruise MP. Then you look at this fuel flow gauge and lean to the MP you just made a mental note of, from the MP Gauge. Keep leaning until the needle points to the tiny number in the green band, for your MP. Then your fuel flow can be read at the white numbers on the outer arc of the face. It helps a little but you will still be conservatively rich and wasting a LOT of money on fuel.
After a couple of minutes reading this thread, if you have 30 minutes to learn something that will save you hundreds if not THOUSANDS of dollars, watch this...
start at 18:04 if you'd like Insight Engine Monitor - YouTube
Now read this.
I installed one of these with EGTx4 and CHTx4. It cost me less that $300 from Ebay, including probes. I **** my cruise fuel consumption from about 11.5 to about 9.5-10. It payed for itself in no time.
BRYAN kinda good point. most helicopters do not fly high enough to lean out to make it worth it.I personally run mine full rich all the time the cooler that engine runs the longer it will last..the fuel flow meter and manifold gauge works fine thees are installed in most all helicopters with a fuel injection engine.leaning a engine out at near sea level just wears out the cylinder's .i would rather save.. the engine rather then money.. if one tries to save money in a helicopter should not own one..most after market gauges and instruments are not calibrated right. they are a good base point if there is none... so i would not rely on them this can cause problems :
Bryan having the ability to read the egt and cht for all 4 cylinders is SOOOO valuable. Even beyond more precise leaning and fuel savings is the ability to spot a problem early. If(when) I pull my engine I think I'd definitely go with a multi probe system-mine already had a spiffy JPI mini scanner but it only has capability of one channel of egt and one cht. Insight, JPI, & Electrosonics International all make very good systems. That transducer fuel flow would be killer as well compared to the standard fuel flow which as you point out is just a pressure gauge. I did run a Piper Seneca I with Lycoming IO360C1E6 engines two tbo runs(4000 hours) and my leaning was just pulling it back to 10 on the left and 10.5 on the right(just made them match when you filled it up not really scientific these days) which was usually with full throttle around 6 thousand feet. Never pulled a cylinder in all those hours but it was getting flown a LOT on part 135 at the time plus some limited instructing in it.
Your opinion is understood but my opinion is that there is absolutely no detrimental effect to running an internal combustion engine at 25-50 degrees rich of peak EGT, even in a helicopter. This will be where the engine is engineered to operate. The advantages of doing this don't magically kick-in at 8 or 10 thousand MSL. The principles began at ONE foot of altitude. As you know, the barometer has changed 1/2"Hg when you climb 500' higher. Also, as I'm sure you know, Density Altitude changes DO make a big enough difference to justify leaning.
I agree that the leaning should only be done after leveling off and going to cruise power.
Aside from leaning, a multiprobe scanner like this will:
* Instantly find a clogged injector on one cylinder and tell you which one
* Instantly identify a fouled plug on a cylinder during the Mag Check
* Let you know a single cylinder has problems before becoming an engine failure
* Instantly let you know if have gotten a tank of bad (low octane) AVGAS.
* Instantly identify detonation or pre-ignition
* Gives confidence and peace-of-mind in your engine
I look at this like HAVING AN ELECTROCARDIOGRAPH on your heart 24 hours per day. It has to be a good thing.
On another note...your statement " if one tries to save money in a helicopter should not own one " is so flawed on so many levels.
Airlines even load their aircraft to have an aft CG for no other purpose except to save fuel. The military taxis with some engines
shut down. A smart person will try to save bucks in every facet of life if it's the prudent thing to do. My guess is...you probably
look at the price signs before choosing the gas station you drive into to fill up your car.
Certainly all great points Bryan. I'll say this about trying to save money flying helicopters. I'd like to have a new 350k R44 sitting in the hangar but just am not in that league financially. Most of the helicopter enthusiasts I know are just like me I in that you have to make choices to leave something else off you might enjoy to make the helicopter thing viable. Nothing wrong and in fact it's absolutely necessary for most of us to try to get the most bang for our buck when it comes to these machines. Of course being in the business I can testify that some people-often very wealthy people-are over the top in trying to skimp on maintenance and repairs which are safety of flight items. When people I know are worth millions pack a tire in they bought off trade-a-plane and want me to install it(or worse want to bring it in our hangar and borrow our jacks to do it themselves) that gets trying. You'd never get by doing something like that with your car down at the Chevy dealer . I let plenty of hard working people work on their aircraft to save money as long as they know in the end I have to make a living too. But the facts are for most of us we have to be as frugal as possible to keep our machines at a safe level of maintenance and repair. Most of the owner/pilots of helicopters are great people and want their machines to be safe. They are after all the PIC with their family and friends as passengers!
. I let plenty of hard working people work on their aircraft to save money as long as they know in the end I have to make a living too. But the facts are for most of us we have to be as frugal as possible to keep our machines at a safe level of maintenance and repair. Most of the owner/pilots of helicopters are great people and want their machines to be safe. They are after all the PIC with their family and friends as passengers!