I was outside last night and had a Cessena single engine airplane fly over my house at an extremely slow speed ,slow for an airplane anyway.Price of aviation fuel has to be north fo $5 right now and to submitt a flight plan with as few stops as possible would generate the best concern of how to perform the ultimate mpg.

I don't know, hypermiling is ok if you have a Toyota Prius, but I would get a little edgy hypermiling in a mode of transport where the term "stall speed" has some relevance.

Was it a 172? After doing some crosswind landings last night in my own plane, a crop duster friend asked if I wanted to go around the patch with him in his 172 for a minute. He took me over a field as if he were doing an application. We went over some trees so close, I felt like I should look for leaves in the undercarriage when we got back on the ground.

Anyway, flying low and slow is no way to conserve fuel. The guy was probably just buzzing around. If he was below 500 feet in a non populated area or below 1,000 feet in a populated area, he was violating the law as my cropduster friend was last night.

With avgas around $5 a gallon right now, there is probably less flying, but if someone IS flying, they are probably not concerned about fuel conservation to a point of doing something extreme.

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Every internal combustion engine has a "sweet spot" in the rev range where it gets the best fuel economy, although that is rarely where it is making the most power.

If you can find that spot, you will experience either a good increase in fuel economy, or, if it translates to a markedly-faster vehicle speed, an inversely-proportionate decrease for the given speed increase (in other words, the greater economy is somewhat offset by the increased drag of a higher rate of speed, but if you're in the engine's sweet spot, it may not be a significant decrease in economy).

That said, low engine speeds are usually not near the sweet spot, so I'd bet the pilot in your example was just goofing around. And if you're going slow enough you need to deploy flaps for additional lift, then you're increasing drag, further increasing the engine load and hence, fuel consumption.

Cessna's are a reliable and easy to fly airplane. That said, the old adage, "it's the nut behind the wheel" that is the problem. Make sure your homeowner's and medical insurance policies are paid up and carefully read the insurance contracts to see what coverage you have available in the event an airplane crashes into your house. Hopefully your wills are in good order as well. Good luck.

Nah, he was trolling for drones.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/open-discussion/336833-i-missed-yesterday.html

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