My CFI taught me some leaning techniques that I could do on the ground to counter the high DA on really hot days. I decided to head out to the airport this weekend on July 4th to try out a few of these to make sure I could do them solo.
It was again brutally hot, almost 110 on the ramp with 80% humidity. The DA at that time was 3100', I knew I had plenty of runway and the airport to myself.
The Cherokee still performs poorly in high DA situations but it doesn't seem to struggle as much when properly leaned. It's still pretty weird to have the mixture leaned so 'aggressively' and a little unnerving to see that control pulled so far back on takeoff. But it makes a huge difference.
