EAA Sport Aviation - February 2012

At level off I call, “Cruise power, cruise
check,” and Greg pulls the engines right back
to 130 BMEP (brake mean effective pres-
sure), and we loaf along at 185 knots.

The overcast skies give us a bumpy ride to about midway up the Florida coast when we suddenly break out into the clear. Cruising at 7,000 feet in smooth air we can now begin the fuel mixture leaning process. The engines have been running in auto-lean until now, but Greg talks me through the manual leaning procedure. Each engine is stabilized at 130 BMEP for our low power cruise. BMEP is another gauge, like a manifold pressure gauge, that measures engine power. Greg wants to run the engines 10 percent lean of peak. One at a time I push the big mixture levers on the back side of the pedestal toward the floor until we register only 117 BMEP, then I push the throttle back up to 130. Repeat three more times, and we’re done.

Jeff talks to Joe Castiglioni during the flight. The trip was very social, with passengers spending most of the time out of their seats mingling with each other and the crew, enjoying snacks, and peeking into the cockpit.

A SOCIAL OCCASION

This is a social occasion, so it’s time for me to
go back and pay attention to the clientele.
Eddy takes my place as I step back into the
cabin. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger’s been
handling the passengers, and they are raven-
ous for pictures and to have my signature join
his on their boarding passes and their really
handsome-looking flight certificates. Wish I
had one, but today I’m just crew.