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whirlwind propellers

I Have a Whirlwind 151 Three bladed on the front of my I/O 360(215hp). I have been running it for about a year and a half with 125 hours. The prop performs great! No leaks or other problems, and it looks Too cool!
Any questions, give me a call.
AL Grajek
859-361-9460
 
whirlwind

Thanks for the reply. I am curious about the new 200rv compared to the 151. the reason I am interested in the whirlwind is the rpm limitations and performance of aluminum props.
 
200RV

There are lots of them out there. Do a search on under this heading and you'll get good information. There is also a yahoo group for the WW props.

I have 300.92 hours on my WW 200RV now. After some initial early issues, (nothing major) the prop has been trouble free. Also, mine balanced to 0.00. This is a perfect balance.

The prop is very smooth and is specifically designed for the RV aircraft. My engine is the ECI IO360. I'm running dual Pmags. I would definitely do it again.
 
plumbflyer,

Although it doesn't included the newer 151, rather the older 150, here is some info you might be interested in...
http://www.romeolima.com/RV8/Prop.htm

Check the archives, there's lots of info on the history of both the company and their products, and as others have mentioned there is a YahooGroup that is worth searching also.

Short summary...
PROS: great performance (lighter, faster, quieter), no rpm restrictions.
CONS: shorter service intervals, more expensive.
 
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400RV Whilwind Prop

I have installed a 3 blade Whirlwind Prop using 3 RV200 blades. I cant report performance yet but will soon. Also planning to go to OSH. The new prop with spinner etc (complete) weighs 58 lbs. 3 blade version is 73" diam. because the 3 blade hub is a larger diam.

I had an old (1996) wood core Whirlwind on which the blades had to be replaced. The wood core shrunk under the carbon fiber outer sheathing. This caused delamination. The old prop weighed 61 lbs complete.

BTW the prop is on a Glasair 1 RG, with a modified IO360C1D6 (angle valve engine 200 HP stock) producing about 245 HP at 2700 rpm on dyno. balanced blueprinted, flowed, ported, cam modified, elect ign, etc.

Some high power RV's may want to consider this prop arrangement. It does not yet show up on the Whirlwind website. They call it a 400RV prop.
 
I Love Mine

I have a 200HP IO-360 A-1-B on my 8 and am running a WW200RV and I love it. It's smooth, looks great, performs great and the company was great to deal with. To date, after over a hundred hours on it my only complaint is one of the decals had a clear layer over it and it came off. I stopped by their booth and Sun-n-Fun and they gave me a couple new ones.
The spinner looks and fits great and is already fitted to the prop.
I have nothing to complain about at all..

2656101705_c7aea861ac.jpg
 
Dan Blumel said:
I have installed a 3 blade Whirlwind Prop using 3 RV200 blades. I cant report performance yet but will soon. Also planning to go to OSH. The new prop with spinner etc (complete) weighs 58 lbs. 3 blade version is 73" diam. because the 3 blade hub is a larger diam.

I had an old (1996) wood core Whirlwind on which the blades had to be replaced. The wood core shrunk under the carbon fiber outer sheathing. This caused delamination. The old prop weighed 61 lbs complete.

BTW the prop is on a Glasair 1 RG, with a modified IO360C1D6 (angle valve engine 200 HP stock) producing about 245 HP at 2700 rpm on dyno. balanced blueprinted, flowed, ported, cam modified, elect ign, etc.

Some high power RV's may want to consider this prop arrangement. It does not yet show up on the Whirlwind website. They call it a 400RV prop.
Click to expand...


It's like they read my mind! How much power is it good for?

Hans
 
Actually.....according to my paperwork...it's called the 400 Rocket Prop....not 'RV' Prop. As I understand....I have the 2nd one of the props that have been built.....the 1st one is on an IO-540 competition acro plane and is performing well (so I'm told).

The Whirlwind 400 Rocket Swept Tip prop is mounted on my newly minted F1 Rocket and will be flying in a couple weeks. I'll be sure to let folks know how it performs :D.

Can't say enough about Greg at Whirlwind!




Dan Blumel said:
Some high power RV's may want to consider this prop arrangement. It does not yet show up on the Whirlwind website. They call it a 400RV prop.
Click to expand...
 
rv6rick said:
Actually.....according to my paperwork...it's called the 400 Rocket Prop....not 'RV' Prop. As I understand....I have the 2nd one of the props that have been built.....the 1st one is on an IO-540 competition acro plane and is performing well (so I'm told).

The Whirlwind 400 Rocket Swept Tip prop is mounted on my newly minted F1 Rocket and will be flying in a couple weeks. I'll be sure to let folks know how it performs :D.

Can't say enough about Greg at Whirlwind!

Click to expand...

I believe based on your photo and IO-540 HP (260-360 approx) range it is not the same. Your leading edge protection does not go as far down to the hub as the 200RV blades and how mine looks.

They call mine a 400RV on all the paperwork and manual and is for high powered IO-360.
The hub in your photo "looks" identical to mine though.

I believe mine is the 3rd of this type, RV-4 last year and a guy in Australia. Mine is the only one so far with the new style curved erosion protection at the tips just like yours has in the photo.
 
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rpm restriction on whirl wind 200RV prop!?!

I just received my 200RV prop from Whirl Wind. It is beautiful. A real work of art.

But one thing that surprised me was a statement in the manual for it that says "avoid continuous operation between 2600-2700 rpm and 2050-2300 rpm"!!!

Everything I found prior to ordering the prop indicated there where no rpm restrictions on the 200RV prop. On the specification sheet on the website, it says "restrictions: none".

So whats the deal?
 
Yup, this inconsistency troubled me as well. My understanding from WW is that the "avoid" statement is CYA type thing. It is not based on any testing specific to the WW prop - they adopted the statement based on testing Hartzell did on their props. I question whether that is really applicable at all, but Im no expert

In practice, you just dont hear much that is negative from people using the 200RV prop. I dont think you have much to worry about here. I dont spend much time in that RPM range anyway - do you?

Would like to hear what others have to say as well though

erich
 
I called Greg

About this when I installed my WW 200RV. If I remember correctly he said it was the same manual as the 151 and not to pay any attention to it...
 
Interesting...

scsmith said:
I just received my 200RV prop from Whirl Wind. It is beautiful. A real work of art.

But one thing that surprised me was a statement in the manual for it that says "avoid continuous operation between 2600-2700 rpm and 2050-2300 rpm"!!!

Everything I found prior to ordering the prop indicated there where no rpm restrictions on the 200RV prop. On the specification sheet on the website, it says "restrictions: none".

So whats the deal?
Click to expand...

I've been meaning to mention this... Interesting isn't it? There ARE RPM restrictions on a 200RV prop. They need to either change the website or the manual...

Also, it says in the same manual that you should dynamically balance the prop before you fly it, has everyone seen that?


Hans
 
erich weaver said:
My understanding from WW is that the "avoid" statement is CYA type thing. It is not based on any testing specific to the WW prop - they adopted the statement based on testing Hartzell did on their props. I question whether that is really applicable at all, but Im no expert
Click to expand...

My understanding as well.
 
"RECOMMENDED"

Hi All,

I just heard back from Greg Anderson, and he clarified that the manual says 'recommended to avoid', I think for the reasons stated above.

I think there is no issue.
The resonance problem is from a particular propeller being sensitive to a certain resonant frequency. the engine is always putting out two bumps per rev, so 2300 x 2/60 = 75 hz, for example. If the prop blade has a resonance at 75 hz, it needs a restriction. its not the engine's fault.

Typically, a composite blade is lighter and stiffer, so its frequencies are all higher - with no test data its hard to say, but very likely that there are no resonance issues in the operating range. So I think the 'recommend' is based on the observation that certain rpms have been hard on SOME props, so just be careful.

I'm content
 
Not only are composite props lighter and stiffer, but they are inherently more damp than almost any metal. When was the last time you saw a fiberglass tuning fork?

Every object that has any mass has a resonant frequency, but the properties of the material determine the amplitude of the resonance -- composites just don't exhibit as much gain at their resonance frequency as aluminum.
 
No real issues @ any RPM

I think I was one of the early purchasers of the 200RV. (Got it when it was still in CA.) When I began flying the prop I tested it at 50 RPM intervals from 1800 to 2650. I could find no real problems at any RPM range. I do avoid the recommended rpm's but have no problem with flying there for transient time periods.

I might add that it is really important to get the prop balanced. I did and it was balanced to a 0.00. This is a perfect balance. The guy said he has never had one before. It is smooth beyond works.

Finally, I've found that the "sweet spot" for my engine/prop combination is 2450 RPM at WOT. Supersmooth, fast and efficient.

Use with confidence.
 
RV7Guy said:
I might add that it is really important to get the prop balanced. I did and it was balanced to a 0.00. This is a perfect balance. The guy said he has never had one before. It is smooth beyond works.
Click to expand...

In my 200RV owner's manual (Rev2003-1) it states "The engine/propeller must be dynamically balanced before first flight."
 
Dynamic Balancing

nucleus said:
I've been meaning to mention this... Interesting isn't it? There ARE RPM restrictions on a 200RV prop. They need to either change the website or the manual...

Also, it says in the same manual that you should dynamically balance the prop before you fly it, has everyone seen that?


Hans
Click to expand...

I had my WW dynamically balanced based upon the POH statement. The initial test showed a .05 inch deflection. This is exceptionally good, consequently no additional balancing was necessary. The WW is a very smooth prop. I have over 400 hours on mine and am quite happy with both the prop and the support.
 
Update soon on 200RV service interval & harmonics

I understand from talking to one rep that a whole lot of additional testing has been completed and they will hopefully soon announce a major extention to the initial service interval (may be as high as 2000 hours and 7 years).

Also, as Steve posted, the harmonics should be way higher and indeed they are. The primary resonance is at 340hz and they expect to take off any RPM restrictions as previous RPM concerns were not really based on test data.

This is all prelim, I'll look forward to the actual announcements!

Tim
 
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