Less Power for More Aircraft Range

What if getting to B by burning as little fuel as possible is our objective? Or we want to stay aloft as long as possible? There are speeds to fly to achieve those goals, but well have to slow down, usually a lot. And those exact speeds, for best range and for best endurance, usually arent published for personal airplanes. A workaround is to simply use the lowest book power setting. If no limitations prevent it, best range or endurance usually is found at even lower power.

Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside

Wednesday, February 17, 2016 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Pilots can optimize flights for maximum range (greatest distance) or maximum endurance (longest time aloft) by flying at specific, slower airspeeds, which prioritize minimizing total drag or fuel burn per unit of time, respectively.
Best range speed is typically the speed of minimum total drag (often equivalent to best power-off glide speed), while best endurance speed is the slowest speed requiring the least power to stay aloft, just above the region of reversed command.
Since exact best range and endurance speeds are often not published for personal airplanes, pilots can estimate them using the lowest available power settings or, as a practical fallback, the aircraft's best power-off glide speed, adjusted for current weight and wind.

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Among the universe of reasons we fly are aerobatics, pipeline patrol, aerial application and photography. Then there’s $100 hamburgers, plus plain old sightseeing. There’s also personal and business transportation from Point A to Point B, which implies a cross-country flight. Normally, we’ll want to make that trip as quickly as possible. But what if we don’t want to fly as fast as our flivver will go?

What if getting to B by burning as little fuel as possible is our objective? Or we want to stay aloft as long as possible? There are speeds to fly to achieve those goals, but we’ll have to slow down, usually a lot. And those exact speeds, for best range and for best endurance, usually aren’t published for personal airplanes. A workaround is to simply use the lowest book power setting. If no limitations prevent it, best range or endurance usually is found at even lower power.