Composite Prop Erosion

[Daniel S.]

I had a very interesting conversation this weekend concerning erosion on rear face of composite props in rain / snow / known conditions etc. dispite the metal leading edge protection. Of course this "should" only be a concern when running the prop at a high angle of attack in such conditions. Have any of the Experimental (composite) CS prop manufactures (MT, WW, etc) truely addressed / corrected the issue other than saying the erosion "is not too bad"? Personally, just saying "the erosion is not too bad" is not a good enough answer for me because the damage is still happening & will get worse over time.

My specific question here would be with all the guys out there with CS composite props, do you have an erosion issue when running in other than ideal weather?

Certainly, with a bunch of commuters / commercial aircraft out there that run composite props, this type of issue has already been addressed / solved on a commercial level. I can't imagine the "big boys" invest in basically disposable prop blades. I may be wrong though. Thoughts?

[Russ McCutcheon]

MTV 15-B/183-33,,,, Mine has seen lots of rain and some snow, erosion has never gone beyond the edge of the paint near the leading edge , no erosion ever off the metal portion of the prop front or back.

Prop including blades where just O/H this past summer after 1000 or so hours of operation hear in the NW.

[Guy Prevost]

I have nearly 500 hours on my WW, some of that in rain. The last 2.5 hours to KOSH this year were in light rain. No erosion issues at all.

Guy