Took Off with mixture leaned for taxiing today...

[Flying_Monkey]

I aggressively lean the mixture during ground ops....anywhere between 1.2-2.3 gallons per hour. I was taught "lights camera action" when crossing the hold short line and have made it my own by saying out loud or in my head "lights camera fuel action" with fuel being the key word to enrichen mixture, turn pump on and glance at fuel selector to make sure it's on the proper tank (although I wouldn't switch it right before takeoff...that's a different discussion). I was departing Catalina island today Vfr, probably preoccupied with avoiding clouds on what would be a right downwind departure and thinking about picking up my clearance to negotiate the cloud layer over LAX in the distance. I had a passenger and maybe got distracted by him I don't know. In any case on the runway I pushed the throttle forward and felt the bumpy Catalina runway. I noticed my static rpm at only 2290...right on the edge of acceptable and though well that's weird I usually see 2320 or 2340 initially. Well the runway is uphill and I've got a decent crosswind so maybe that's it... I proceeded to take off ok and turned right crosswind and a tight right downwind. Sometime very soon I noticed the mixture still in the very lean position. WHAT THE FU@K?!?! Seriously. What. The. Fu@k.

How did this get by me? Such a basic basic mistake I can't believe it. Never again. I feel lucky the engine didn't quit or anything like that. I need to look at my jpi data to see where the temps were (they never alarmed) and what the fuel flow actually was. I lost my usb stick that has the flight data on it. I'm sure it will show up soon.

I just thought I'd share and confess my sins!

 

[flyguydon]

 

[Canuck]

 

[Flying_Monkey]

 

[Canuck]

 

[EchoDelta]

 

[GM.]

 

[gusve]

 

[Orest @ CYFD]

 

[N33GG]