burgundyja

burgundyja

Well Known Member
I have about 70 hours on my catto and have a few small paint nicks. What is the longest and shortest time in service. I am not interested in prop strikes just normal none rain flying.
 
I have about 400 hrs. on mine, flying off my gravel strip. Still looks like new.
 
480+ on my 3 blade.
I have some nicks from my phase 1 from a gravel, not swept asphalt.
Since then, have not seen any more.
A few months ago I added the prop-guard leading edge tape.
 
LE protection

I just purchased 2' of 4" wide, adhesive-backed 0.002" nickel foil. As soon as I get my new three-blade from Catto I plan on running some tests with it to see if the adhesive will continue to hold long term, and also if the 0.002" step will trip the flow sufficiently to reduce the prop's performance. I'm going to cut the foil into 1/2" wide strips to put on the LE, overlapping 1/4" top and bottom. If the prop performance degrades, I plan on seeing if I can use a fine file to file-off rid of the step, or fill in behind the step with micro or cabosil. Craig tells me the propguard tape is 0.015" and he's been told that by some that it reduces performance. That's a big step, almost as much as your first-borne's first one! My latest design keeps the LE straight until the last 2" or 3" where it curves back to meet the TE at the tip, so it should be fairly easy to attach the foil on the straight part. BTW, that foil costs over $17/ft from McMaster Carr!
 
Catto Props Rock...

I put 1000+ hours on my Catto two-blade, the very first one bolted on an RV4 back in 98'. I visited Craig's shop in the foothills of the Sierra after shoe-horning my RV4 into the dirt strip at the end of his road. Craig loaned me a prop he originally made for a Glasair and I beta-tested it on my RV4. Craig took the data, dialed it in and made me a wonderful two-blade that really brought my 150 horses their full potential, especially considering my home strip then was 1100' grass/gravel. Many years later I removed my 150HP 0-320 and sent it back for re-conditioning and sold it. It's still flying on another RV4 today. Craig took every piece of data I sent him and continued developing his props to a fine art, a true craftsman.
Over the years I originally tested the prop guard tape, electrical tape and Tennessee propellers leading edge tape for Craig's database. Each application gave me a noticeable decrease in performance, typically 1 or 2%. I finally tried just putting the tape on the last 6" of leading edge, this gave me the least performance degradation and still reduced rain damage, a nemesis in the SE USA.
I can't say enough about Craig Cattos props, the old Schwinn bicycle ad comes to mind: "Catto props, the quality props are best!"

Smokey
HR2
 
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I have to say, I have experienced a performance hit once installing the prop guard tape, although not measured.
I may consider stripping away all but 6".
Can anyone else confirm the performance hit?
 
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