I fly a CRJ (one of those old 200s without FADEC) and was on the climbout thinking, "Why do I have to keep adding power?" I tried a constant indicated airspeed of 250 from around 5K feet to 25K. I kept pushing an extra percent every few minutes, but around 18K I didn't have to push anymore. The N1 carot finally decides to stay where it is. So my question is,
What computes where the N1 carot should be for climb power?
And for good measure: What item are we trying to maintain at a constant value (pounds of thrust, EPR, ITT, etc)?
Just curious...