Well, I may go along with part of this.. running it in the air is not operating it at full throttle running somewhat lean. Flying it that way, with some throttle management, does go through the RPM range and does give it some stress at full throttle and will probably seat the piston to the sleeve just fine. But, as said previously, I will continue to break in my engines the way I've been doing it in the past. They all run just fine and I assume they will run just fine as long as I own them. I was taught how to break in, and set the needles by the club pro. He and his son are pretty much up there in the Pattern arena and seem to know what they are talking about.

I think it all boils down to personal choice and training. If that's the way you were trained and it works for you, well, that's just fine. I won't argue with that, and again, agree to disagree. Easy enough, right?