Looking for any information from guys operating their RV10 with a 3 blade prop.
i.e. Performance numbers, noise, vibration etc
I made too many changes at once to give you very objective answers, but I've had an MT 3 blade prop on my RV-10 and now have a 2 blade Whirlwind.
I made the change because for a few reasons. None of these may be big deals to others--they were just my reasons.
- The 3 blade prop made cowl removal without damaging something very difficult.
- My focus is cruise efficiency--having more blades than necessary to couple the engine's power hurts my engineer's brain.
- The wood core of MT props seems to shrink in the dry desert--every MT prop at my airport has wrinkles running spanwise down the blades from the root. We've been told not to worry about it.
- I had a WW RV200 on the RV-8a I built and fell in love with the prop. I'm just a fan. I've had long conversations with the airfoil designer and have spent quite a bit of time with his (rather odd) book.
Now to answer your questions. I had about 12 hours on the MT prop that came on my RV-10 and about 110 hours on the Whirlwind. I made quite a few aerodynamic cleanups and added electronic ignition at the same time, so I can't offer much objective data.
Smoothness: The MT propeller was definitely smoother. As others have stated, the low inertia from the short blades and the inherent damping of the wood core make for a very smooth feel.
Climb: I could detect no difference and there were too many variables in my pre/post change data to tell a difference.
Speed: I believe the WW is faster. Again, I have too many variables. My airplane was 12 knots faster in cruise after the change, but only a portion of that can be attributed to the prop. My plane was a little rough around the edges when I bought it...
Other: I can now easily remove my lower cowl. That's very important to me. I also like the looks better, but many folks seem to like the look on 3 blades for some reason.