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 flight for maximum range (distance per fuel) or maximum endurance (time aloft) by flying specific, often slower, airspeeds.
Best range speed minimizes total drag and is generally similar to the best power-off glide speed, requiring adjustments for aircraft weight and wind conditions.
Best endurance speed minimizes fuel consumption for time aloft, found just above the region of reversed command, and is often not explicitly published.
When exact figures are unavailable, pilots can approximate best range/endurance speeds by using the lowest safe power setting or the aircraft's adjusted best power-off glide speed.

See a mistake? Contact us.

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.