http://www.greatplainsas.com/edorder.html

I second the Ed Sterba prop.

If you are needing a replacement in a hurry the list gets short. I had an Aymar Demuth come apart a little over a year ago and called every manufacturer I could find. Most had a huge lead time to get a new prop made. A couple I never could get to return my calls.

Ed built me one from scratch and shipped under two weeks and still only charged me something like $650 total. He even made the hub profile match the spinner that I already had so it was just a bolt on. I was planning on upgrading to a fancy composite overlay prop once the plane was back home but the Sterba prop has performed just like Ed said and was dialed in the first try.....so I've just kept flying it.
 
My Serba prop is approaching 600 hrs on my 160 hp RV9. It's been great. Recently, I noticed a few very small spots where the varnish was faded and thinning. I contacted Ed and he recommeneded a lightly brushed coat of urethane varnish from Lowes. Easy.
I plan to go with a Sterba prop again on my current project.
 
I have a Performance prop on my 7A and I am very happy with it. It is a beautiful prop and has held up well for 350 + hours. I would do it again.
 
More info please........

badmrb said:
http://www.greatplainsas.com/edorder.html

.... I had an Aymar Demuth come apart a little over a year ago ....
Click to expand...

Hi Steve,

I'm intrigued/fascinated by your prop coming apart...YIKES!!! I've checked your posts trying to find more details about it. Apparently, you don't really know what happened. I'm thinking GOOD GRIEF, what a terrible experience. You are at 7,000' feet and your wife is with you??? Man oh man....

Am interested in what you might even suspect went awry.

I'm certain you jerked the throttle almost to the rudder. What else happened if you don't mind sharing???? Others too. I know fly the plane, etc.

But, successful survivors of this can give us some really good information.

Thank you in advance for any info and am proud of all who have survived such an unwanted adventure.

Deal Fair
 
Wood Props

I have about 62 hrs on my newly flying -9A with a Sterba prop.

It works great and costs less than anything else.

There's a guy on our field with a -6 he built 15 years ago and still has the same
Sterba prop he started with. Its been back to Ed's shop for re-fininshing a couple of times.

Spend more money if you must.......

Dave
-9A flying
 
Deal fair,

Yeah, it WAS exciting. I don't know what caused it. The guy from Aymar was sure I hit something. There was nothing indicating any bird strike. It could have been a rock that started a chip/crack. I imagine it was a stress crack that I didn't notice.

My wife and I were heading on a little trip. I had just stopped to top off and we were still climbing around 8000 ft when it all of a sudden got very noisy and very rough. It was drastic enough my wife wife grabbed me. I eased the power back and started a turn towards the airport we had just left which was also the closest. I didn't know it was the prop. I thought I had lost a cylinder. There was a lot of vibration.

I quickly went through the engine monitor, all the cylinder numbers still looked normal. I was watching oil pressure, thinking maybe I had a valve stuck and bent pushrod, dumping oil, etc.. I just didnt know. I also was slowly varying rpm since that was greatly affecting the vibration. I found a couple rpm where the vibration was minimal. I used the lowest, smoothest rpm which was about 2000.

As I got near the airport I was still doing over 140kts so pulled the power all the way thinking maybe I'd find another smooth rpm way low. I was wrong, things really got to shaking and it scared my wife good (ok, me too). It was bad enough I killed the motor, pitched up to loose airspeed, threw in flaps, did a big funky S turn to loose altitude and turned final dead stick. It all happened really fast so I wasn't thinking, just doing.

It's funny, as I was flaring and touching down the prop had stopped spinning and was slowly turning over so I finally saw the big wedge out of the blade. I was so relieved thinking "thank goodness it's not some twenty thousand dollar motor just blew a hole in the side!". I rolled to a stop and my wife jumped out and starting hollering about the prop and then looked at me and said, "youre kinda pale". ;) I just sat and relaxed for a few minutes waiting for all the adrenaline to let up.

I have had other "fun" flying events over the years and the saying about Always Fly the Plane First.....is good advice.

I am happy with the Sterba prop. My performance was a little off after first installing but it was related to something else not the prop.
 
WOW!!!!

Thanks for the details Steve and am ever so happy you two are OK. Wow again!!

Hmm Hmmm, a super close prop inspection is going to be high priority on my check lists, pre & post flight!! I hope none of us ever experience that again.

Safe & fun flying.

Deal Fair
 
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