Well you can't "run out" but WEP normally has a fixed number of minutes to start with before you overheat. Say 5 minutes of duration. When you are not using WEP, it regenerates at 1/2 the rate it was used. (Or it used to work that way.) I guess since it's tied to engine temp now shutting your engine down sounds like you will get WEP back much faster than the normal rate.
In any case, it's a good idea to shut down for those 30 seconds as you re-arm if you've been using a lot of WEP.
Hmmmm. I'm going to try this in the air. If I run dry of WEP in a fight, afterwards I could grab some alt, then feather the prop and kill the engine and glide for a while. If it's just the engine being off that does it, that should cool the motor and "regenerate" my WEP much faster. Or maybe use it all on climb-out to get to altitude fast, then a bit of gliding deadstick to cool it, and then go hunting. It depends on how fast it cools I guess.
Interesting point. I'll have to explore this one further. Thanks for the tip Raub.
[ 12-29-2001: Message edited by: Lephturn ]