In my experience, when flying in a 172 with instructors and they pull the power to simulate an engine out situation, they will often "clear the engine" by adding in a little power every few minutes. I never understood why they did this and never thought to ask.
Today I was doing constant airspeed tests to determine Vx and Vy and V_best_glide. I set the autopilot to hold whatever speed and went full power until reaching some altitude (I used 11,000' which worked out to 12,500 density). On descent, I would just slowly pull back the power and let the AP hold the same speed for a descent. (Download data and analyze later).
But I remembered all those instructors always "clearing the engine" and so I "cleared the engine" too every few minutes. Put in some power for 5 or 10 seconds and pull it back out.
So I ask here to this group. Is "clearing the engine" necessary and if so, why?
Thanks,
Today I was doing constant airspeed tests to determine Vx and Vy and V_best_glide. I set the autopilot to hold whatever speed and went full power until reaching some altitude (I used 11,000' which worked out to 12,500 density). On descent, I would just slowly pull back the power and let the AP hold the same speed for a descent. (Download data and analyze later).
But I remembered all those instructors always "clearing the engine" and so I "cleared the engine" too every few minutes. Put in some power for 5 or 10 seconds and pull it back out.
So I ask here to this group. Is "clearing the engine" necessary and if so, why?
Thanks,