What is the ins and outs of wood verses metal props on our planes?
I have a RV-4 with a 160hp O-320 and a Metal Sensenich prop and it has a vibration that bothers me. It is not all that bad, but it is certainly not as smooth as I would like it to be. The builder of my plane noted a vibration on the 1st flight of the plane and the only fix I believe he did to fix this was to rotate the prop 180 degrees, which did not make it any better. I asked him his thoughts on this and he said he thought it was the engines carb causing this - ??? -
I had the plane in a shop earlier this year to do a dynamic balance but after each run the computer asked for more and more weights to be added in various places on the spinner and the vibration at high rpms got no better each time, and the low rpm vibrations got worse. So we put everything like it was when I came into the shop - no added weights, just prop and spinner.
I was thinking of possibly ordering a new prop for it - the prop on it now was brand new when installed.... 70cm7s9-0-81..... and now has about 240 hobbs hours on it. Was thinking of trying a wood prop and don't know why one would be better than the other etc.... I have heard other pilots tire kicking about planes on trade-a-plane and Barnstormers.com and when the plane has a metal prop it is as if that was a bonus or something ???
The only limitation my prop has that I am aware of is to avoid operations above 2600rpm and for the most part I do not run it that fast - I may exceed 2600 rpm in a dive but only for a few seconds. I do run the engine real close to 2600 rpms in cruise if I am in a hurry to get somewhere, wonder if this is okay....?
Anyhow just educate me please. I got a chance to fly a friends RV-4 with a O-360 on it with a wood prop and it was very smooth, almost night and day comparied to mine.
I have a RV-4 with a 160hp O-320 and a Metal Sensenich prop and it has a vibration that bothers me. It is not all that bad, but it is certainly not as smooth as I would like it to be. The builder of my plane noted a vibration on the 1st flight of the plane and the only fix I believe he did to fix this was to rotate the prop 180 degrees, which did not make it any better. I asked him his thoughts on this and he said he thought it was the engines carb causing this - ??? -
I had the plane in a shop earlier this year to do a dynamic balance but after each run the computer asked for more and more weights to be added in various places on the spinner and the vibration at high rpms got no better each time, and the low rpm vibrations got worse. So we put everything like it was when I came into the shop - no added weights, just prop and spinner.
I was thinking of possibly ordering a new prop for it - the prop on it now was brand new when installed.... 70cm7s9-0-81..... and now has about 240 hobbs hours on it. Was thinking of trying a wood prop and don't know why one would be better than the other etc.... I have heard other pilots tire kicking about planes on trade-a-plane and Barnstormers.com and when the plane has a metal prop it is as if that was a bonus or something ???
The only limitation my prop has that I am aware of is to avoid operations above 2600rpm and for the most part I do not run it that fast - I may exceed 2600 rpm in a dive but only for a few seconds. I do run the engine real close to 2600 rpms in cruise if I am in a hurry to get somewhere, wonder if this is okay....?
Anyhow just educate me please. I got a chance to fly a friends RV-4 with a O-360 on it with a wood prop and it was very smooth, almost night and day comparied to mine.