Another nice day with promise, so after waiting for the temps to warm up to tolerable, I decided to check the area South East of the house. The terrain climbs quite a bit, so instead of my usual tendency to hug the ground, I took the plane up to 7500 feet. The only problem of course to waiting for the temps to climb is that it generally only occurs around noon and the thermals start to kick in.

I am still working on developing parameters of my HKS and the Hacman fuel system, so this time I planned to dial the EGT's up to near 1400 degrees or lean of peak which ever  came first. I had a headwind so my ground speed was about 56 MPH.                   

The first picture is looking South West into Nevada, and the next is South East also in Nevada. The water course is the South Fork of the Owyhee River and flows into the main stream of the Owyhee at 3 Forks, of which I had written and shown video last year. At about this point (33 miles from home and still in radio contact - Mike W) I decided that the day was just going to get rougher and I would rather be typing than flying.

The Steen's is in the background, about 80 statue miles away.

As I approached the lower terrain on the final leg home I decided to get closer to the ground to get out of some of the thermals and I began to dial back on the Hacman to keep my EGT's within the proper range.

( As I mentioned it is still pretty cool outside and I was of course wearing gloves. My Mag switches are just above the Hacman dial. As one gets closer to the ground the effect of the Hacman system is such that the EGT's climb. As you throttle back they also rise. )

Well, my EGT's kept raising no matter that I was dialing it back and eventually off. I put the choke full on to keep the fuel as rich as I could get it, and had to throttle up to keep it below 1400. ( If the EGT's get high enough the engine eventually leans out to the point that it stops from fuel starvation.) I happened to be over the road that you can see in the last picture and you can be sure that I stayed there while I was trying to get a handle on what was happening. First I called the wife and informed her of my location and the possibility that I might have to set down, but that I had a good spot to do it. About that time I looked down at the Hacman dial and discovered that with the gloves on, I had switched off one mag switch. :-/  Interestingly enough I had not heard the difference in engine noise. I flicked it back on and the engine began cooling immediately. I must say that I felt quite a bit cooler as well. I informed the wife of the improved condition and again cut back across country to go home. From that point the rest of the trip was uneventful.

Flight was 1 hour 18 minutes, fuel burn was 3 gallons, covered 72 miles, average speed was 60 MPH.

Conclusion one: 
The Hacman system works and helps conserve fuel, but you need to constantly monitor it, and be aware of what it can do to you if you do not. The EIS alarm is very helpful, and saved me from an engine out. The flashing light alerted me to the problem before it became critical. ( I had it set to 1400 degrees. ) As in most things concerning aircraft, and our ability to survive flying them, is influenced by ones actions or omissions. If you snooze you are going to have trouble. On most flights, if fuel is not a problem, and I am flying close to the ground, I will not use the Hacman system. It will save you fuel at altitude. So on a trip, you bet!  Otherwise no.

conclusion two:

The HKS isn't going to run for very long on one mag.

conclusion three:

I could use more panel space.

 http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0siAoTNYTZD6KPbiDncNLfKZruRqx5nUO

Here again is the track that I flew today.

Here is a link to You Tube that has a video of today's flight.  
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DHcx3hxfzk