I risk replying without doing a bit of research and not being technically specific. Luckily MTV is always lurking to straighten things out, which I appreciate.

When I fly ROP (rich of peak) I am flying at a higher cruise power setting, as I remember the old best performance versus best economy graph. My wagon easily holds a slightly nose low attitude and goes along pretty quick. Also at that power setting the autopilot seems able to hold that attitude.

When I run LOP (lean of peak) I am running alot less fuel and at cruise power settings I am getting a little less power to the prop. At this power setting I can hand fly and hold that nice attitude and my speed is just a few knots less than my ROP cruise setting. The autopilot however does not have a light enough touch. If I set it for an altitude it will make slight corrections and soon I'll be wallowing nose high and lose about 10 kts.

So when I am flying shorter routes in areas where gas is plentiful I often fly rich of peak and am able to be lazy with the autopilot. When I am up in Canada flying remote I always fly LOP and will use the autopilot to hold a course, but by trimming it right and keeping 2 fingers on the yolk I can keep it flying with the right attitude.

These are my observations with my '79 185, she's a bit heavy, and not yellow. I've put about 140 hrs on floats the last two years.

-Brad

Durango Sky: Thanks for the further explanation, I think it makes sense. I have a slightly different reason for flying LOP and that is it allows me to keep cylinder head temps below 380. I do not have GAMIs and I just lean till the engine run rough and then richen till it smooths out. I will try and remember to try ROP when on floats and see what happens. Garth, sorry about the short hijacking.

I have an Stec 55X in the C185, its fine on floats or skis.
Bring it to a good avionic shop, you may want to check cable tensions and servos.