I noticed a hairline crack on one metal leading edge of my Catto prop recently. The crack extended through the front and rear of the leading edge, and continued through the paint on the front face. There was slight paint chipping around the crack, and also on a similar area of a second blade. The chipping developed since I last waxed the prop at annual 30 hours ago, but the crack was new because I felt it while running my fingers over the leading edge as part of my normal pre-flight routine.
https://www.dropbox.com/sc/x8nm57fkgvg8cgf/AADWeW_g4sO5xe6S8iev7Ktda
Cutting to the chase:
After discussing with staff at Catto Propellers, they offered to repair the prop and upgrade the leading edges for the cost of freight, and even offered to alter the pitch and color if I was interested. My plane is back in the air after only 5 weeks down to repair, re-pitch, and re-paint the propeller to look like new. (shipping took two weeks) Thanks to Nicole, Erik, Craig, and other staff at Catto for standing behind their product, excellent service, and the quick turn-around!
Background:
The prop was mounted on my RV7-A with Aerosport Power IO-375, and had 230 hours TT when I noticed the crack. I had the engine/prop dynamically balanced about 100 hours ago, and installed an Electroair ignition about 30 hours ago (during annual inspection). I don't know if any or all of these issues are related to the crack.
I ordered the original prop with coarse pitch to maximize top speed, and could just barely reach 2700 rpm in level flight with best power setting. With hindsight, I rarely flew at top speed, and spent most of my time around 50% power sipping 7 gph LOP at 2300 rpm and showing 23 mpg on the EFIS. (cheap, I know) I might have been too close to the harmonic vibration range, saving fuel, but damaging everything else.
I asked Catto to pitch the prop a bit finer during the repair to bring my economy cruise setting up 150 rpm to hopefully eliminate any harmonic vibration issues. I made a short flight with the re-pitched prop yesterday, and am very happy with the results. I continue to indicate 138 knots at my economy cruise setting of 7.0 gph LOP, and rpm increased from 2300 to about 2450. I picked up about 200 rpm on the take-off role, causing a big improvement in performance and "grin factor". It was too bumpy to try a high speed run yesterday, but I will run some formal tests when weather cooperates to see how much top end speed was sacrificed. I might even increase my "economy" setting to 7.5 or even 8 gph if it feels better for the engine/airframe as a whole.
Finally, I took Catto up on their offer to change the prop color to match the new paint job on my airframe - it looks great!
Happy flying!
Jay
https://www.dropbox.com/sc/2s2ilovdifo93jf/AABh4EiN6BplSMIgQmCFc0qna
https://www.dropbox.com/sc/x8nm57fkgvg8cgf/AADWeW_g4sO5xe6S8iev7Ktda
Cutting to the chase:
After discussing with staff at Catto Propellers, they offered to repair the prop and upgrade the leading edges for the cost of freight, and even offered to alter the pitch and color if I was interested. My plane is back in the air after only 5 weeks down to repair, re-pitch, and re-paint the propeller to look like new. (shipping took two weeks) Thanks to Nicole, Erik, Craig, and other staff at Catto for standing behind their product, excellent service, and the quick turn-around!
Background:
The prop was mounted on my RV7-A with Aerosport Power IO-375, and had 230 hours TT when I noticed the crack. I had the engine/prop dynamically balanced about 100 hours ago, and installed an Electroair ignition about 30 hours ago (during annual inspection). I don't know if any or all of these issues are related to the crack.
I ordered the original prop with coarse pitch to maximize top speed, and could just barely reach 2700 rpm in level flight with best power setting. With hindsight, I rarely flew at top speed, and spent most of my time around 50% power sipping 7 gph LOP at 2300 rpm and showing 23 mpg on the EFIS. (cheap, I know) I might have been too close to the harmonic vibration range, saving fuel, but damaging everything else.
I asked Catto to pitch the prop a bit finer during the repair to bring my economy cruise setting up 150 rpm to hopefully eliminate any harmonic vibration issues. I made a short flight with the re-pitched prop yesterday, and am very happy with the results. I continue to indicate 138 knots at my economy cruise setting of 7.0 gph LOP, and rpm increased from 2300 to about 2450. I picked up about 200 rpm on the take-off role, causing a big improvement in performance and "grin factor". It was too bumpy to try a high speed run yesterday, but I will run some formal tests when weather cooperates to see how much top end speed was sacrificed. I might even increase my "economy" setting to 7.5 or even 8 gph if it feels better for the engine/airframe as a whole.
Finally, I took Catto up on their offer to change the prop color to match the new paint job on my airframe - it looks great!
Happy flying!
Jay
https://www.dropbox.com/sc/2s2ilovdifo93jf/AABh4EiN6BplSMIgQmCFc0qna