AX Sport Propellers - any experience?

breister · #1 03-10-2018, 05:21 PM

Price is great - about $5600USD for prop and controller (electric prop, retrofit on non-hydraulic hubs).

Anyone have any experience with these?

FLY6 · #2 03-10-2018, 06:42 PM

Did you contact them for a price, I couldn't see it on their web page? Do you know if there are any dealers in N. America?
I hope you keep us posted if you get more info,
Thanks

breister · #3 03-24-2018, 03:17 PM

Yes I contacted the company in South Africa. If I understand correctly, the $5,600 is "complete" which means it includes the prop, spinner and backing plate, slip ring assembly, and the controller. Skype is a wonderful thing - $0.02 per minute anywhere in the world...

Went out to the airport today to continue flying off Phase I. My mechanic had my header tank leak fixed - yay! However, he had found a crack beginning in my wood prop and was quite blunt that he would not fly behind it. Grrr. After my experience in the Bahamas with a failed wood prop by Aymar Demuth (same maker as this one) and I had to glide 22 miles over open water to land, I'm going to take his advice. Call me skittish; I'm 60 now and have come to the conclusion that no peacetime civilian flight requires me to take any unnecessary risks.

So the issue is now forced, and I'll be ordering on Monday. Will update this thread once I have flown behind it.

rv6ejguy · #4 03-24-2018, 03:49 PM

Looking forward to your experiences with this prop.

FLY6 · #5 03-25-2018, 06:29 AM

I will be interested in hearing your experience. I sent an email asking if they have any dealers in N America or do they have any RV?s flying their prop. I never got a response.

Keep us posted

breister · #6 04-01-2018, 02:06 PM

So it turns out there are some caveats to installing an electric prop on Lycoming O-235/O-290 motors. The flywheel on most of those models lacks sufficient space between the motor hub and the flywheel to install the necessary slip rings.

It can be done - a new O-320 flywheel (may require re-locating alternator, etc.) or custom flywheel, mods to the cowl - in short it is not something which can be simply bolted on.

Also a concern for me, having had a Prince carbon prop with no leading nickel edge is that even mild rain can erode the leading edge. Not hard to fix, but who wants to?

After some soul searching, I'm going to settle for a Catto fixed prop.

FLY6 · #7 04-02-2018, 06:13 AM

Too bad your dream of a constant speed prop is just too much work. I was looking forward to hearing your experience.

Is Skype the only way you communicated with them. As I stated earlier ,they never responded to my email.

Good luck with your new Catto