How Do You Climb

[SportPilot]

.......

[CharlieTango]

...At altitude, you want to increase your speed before reducing the throttle... it's the same for any airplane.

Not my airplane, at altitude the throttle remains wide open. I guess it depends on your definition of 'at altitude' for me it is at least 7,500' and in that case why retard?

[SportPilot]

.......

[MrMorden]

I agree for a climb to pattern, where you are generally at best climb rate. For a leisurely cruise climb, you can nail it pretty closely without having to pull the throttle. The problem in the pattern is the CT is a great climber, and has a decidedly nose-low sight picture compared to other airplanes. At WOT you have to nose it over a lot more than you would normally think is correct to arrest the ascent in a CT.

With some time in the airplane leveling off and hitting your altitude is not a problem. I guess I was speaking about someone who is new to the airplane. Also when approaching cruise altitude you can start lowering the nose a little sooner than in the pattern, so as to approach your desired cruise altitude with a little less rate of climb.

Agree with all points.

[MrMorden]

So I agree with your statement in the case of high, close terrain, but not with regard to climbing over all terrain in general.

Not to pick nits but to make my point clear:

I probably should have said that "whenever your only option is to rely on climb performance then you have already screwed up."

Agreed!

[FastEddieB]

There is a solid aerodynamic reason to keep climb power in until cruise speed is reached.

This should look familiar:



Think of a Cessna 150. At full power it can go at it's maximum speed, limited by parasitic drag.

But in slow flight, it can take full power to maintain level flight near stall, due to increased induced drag.

Any power setting has two speeds the airplane can fly at.

It would be hard to mistake 45k, let's say, for 105k.

But at altitude, especially near a plane's absolute ceiling, the curve flattens. At a certain altitude, full power might result in either 97k or 92k, depending on which side of the curve you were on. Throttle back too soon, and you could do an entire flight at 92k, where if you had kept in full power on level off, the same flight could have been made at 97k.

It's been called "getting on the step", and while there's no real "step", it's pretty clear where the concept came from.

As an aside, right at the plane's absolute ceiling, there is one and only one speed that will keep you there - Vx and Vy have gradually come together and at that point that one speed is needed to maintain level flight.