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Hartzell Composite Prop with Extended Hub

KatanaPilot

Well Known Member
Has anyone on the forum installed an extended hub Hartzell composite three bladed prop on their RV-10?

I have a Showplanes cowl and Airflow Systems A/C and I know there will be clearance issues using the standard hub. I believe we may be able to avoid some of the baffle, intake snorkle and cowling rework using an extended hub prop - but I wanted to reach out and see if anyone has done this.

I've also reached out to Hartzell but haven't heard back from them - so I'm not 100% sure there even is an extended hub for this prop. I have an "M" hub Hartzell two bladed prop on my RV-7A with the long Sam James cowling and it worked really well.
 
We have done back to back (side by side actually) testing of several RV10's and the 3 blade Hartzell is not only the most expensive, but it is the slowest. In the order of 7 or so knots.

The quickest so far has been the 2 blade Whirlwind, much to the despair of us 2 blade hartzell owners :(
 
Understood

Thanks for the info.

No doubt the Whirlwind is a great performing prop. When building our RV-7A a few years ago, we had a fairly lively discussion about the merits of the different props here on VAF.

I ultimately decided on the Hartzell two bladed composite back then for various reasons and plan to stick with a certified prop from a company I know will be there for years to come. If it costs me a few more dollars and a few knots, I can live with that.
 
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In that case, go with the Vans supplied Hartzell blended airfoil prop. Best compromise for you. Three blades also make cowl removal hard so you have to do all manner of mods.

The aluminium prop is also more resilient when flying off gravel.
 
Persistence sometimes pays off

Not one to give up easily, I’m pleased to say that due to the efforts of several folks at Synergy Air South, Van’s and Hartzell Propeller, we now have an extended hub 3 blade composite prop option for the RV-10.

I reached out to Hartzell tech support some time ago and they agreed to engineer an extended hub prop (using the “I” hub) and existing blades for my high compression IO-540. I was hopeful this would permit installation of the Airflow Systems A/C compressor without modifications to the Showplanes cowling. Although I don’t have the prop yet, using the Flyboy’s Accesories cowling installation tool (beautifully made, BTW) and the known dimensions of the 2” extended hub, the compressor clears the cowling with room to spare.

One SAS customer already has her extended hub prop and mine is scheduled to ship early in May. It’s a few more $$$ than the standard prop, as expected, but worth it to prevent a bump out on the Showplaces cowling. It also appears to provide a little more exhaust clearance.

If you are interested, here are the part numbers you would need to order it from Van’s - P/N: I3R40100X Description HC-I3Y1R-1NX/N7605CX/SM9
 
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