About the Power Wheel

The Power Wheel takes an old idea and makes it better than ever. Together with our friends at Advanced Pilot Seminars, we've taken the hard-to-read cruise power setting tables and graphs from your POH and made them usable in a brand new way. Now, you can calculate how much power your engine is really producing. At any RPM, any MP, any altitude, and any OAT. Whether you operate rich or lean of peak EGT.

Rich of Peak EGT Operation

You want to know how much power your engine is producing. Its a simple request. You could work out the calculations, if you had them, a calculator, and a lot of patience.

You could look in your POH, but there are a few problems with that. First, it only contains power settings for limited combinations of RPM and MP. If you want to fly at their power settings, that's fine, but you want to fly at your power settings. Oh, and it's generally recognized that the mixture settings used in the book are, at the very least, not the best way to treat your engine. Second, the numbers in your POH are probibly wrong. They were put together by the aircraft manufacturer, not the engine manufacturer. Which one knows more about your engine? We think so, too.

That's why we use the same calculations the engine manufacturers use, applying the same laws of physics and chemistry to calculate what your engine is really doing. At any power setting you choose. Don't be confused: When you know more about how your engine operates, you can make the proper decisions about how to operate it. Choose a power setting that makes sense to you, and choose a mixture that is good for you and your engine. Yes, when operating rich of peak EGT, the factors involved are complex. That's why we've done the math for you, and put it all into a simple to use form that's quick and easy to use, at your desk or in the cockpit. The APS Power Wheel.

Once you know how much power your engine is producing, you can adjust your mixture to the proper setting. You will notice that above 80%, the Wheel suggests running full rich. Between 80% and 60%, the red area fades from solid red (full rich) to white (any). Match the tone of the red in the graph area to the tone of the red in the arc below the graph area, and find the suggested mixture setting. For example, 70% power is in the middle of the red fade, and you'll find that matches the red in the middle of the arc. This suggests that you operate at a mixture setting of 125° rich of peak.

These settings were chosen based on years of advanced research and with a through understanding of all the factors which affect your engine's best operating range.

Lean of Peak EGT Operation

When operating lean of peak, the single factor which limts power output is fuel flow, so the relationship between fuel flow and power is direct. On the inner section of the lean of peak arc, find your current fuel flow, then follow the scale to the outer section of the arc to find your actual horsepower being generated by your engine. For example, a fuel flow of 10 GPH yields 150 HP; 23.5 GPH yields 350 HP.

Rich of Peak Examples

To give you a handy reference to the Power Wheel, we've included some simple instructions on a handy sheet. The best way to learn how simple it is to operate is to follow the instructions and perform a few sample problems.

Construction

Constructed of high-strength Lexan, the Power Wheel is virtually unbreakable and won't warp, even in cockpits up to 140°. In fact, if anything does go wrong with it, we'll replace it, free. See our customer satisfaction statement for details.

Availability

The Power Wheel is available at FBOs and pilot supply shops nationwide, as well as online. Versions available now are for normally aspirated and turbo-normalized engines. In the near future, we'll have versions for popular turbocharged engines.