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I did a simulated and brief test on Friday. I conclude, guardedly, that the answer is Yes. I say guardedly because I did it with passengers on board, approaching and slightly overshooting the destination airport, for about 10 minutes. It seemed to maintain altitude with the front engine at 25/25, rear engine at simulated thrust with the adjustment for hotter day, and the front engine temperature seemed to plateau at an acceptable level, without overheating, despite having the cowl flaps only half open.
I say seemed because one cannot say with absolute certainty that I wasn't losing a few feet of altitude or the engine slowly increasing in temperature. It didn't seem that way, but I would have liked to have run the test for, say, 30 minutes, and to do that safely (for me, anyway) I would have to orbit an airport. Couldn't do that with my passengers.
What I can say with reasonable certainty is that any loss of altitude, either because it was undetected or resulting from later having to open more the cowl flaps later for engine cooling, would be minimal (e.g., 25 ft/min would give you over 3 hours of flight from 5,000 feet).
Will be away for over a week without regular Internet access, so there may be a delay in answering any queries.
Ernie
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