Been around for a long time
kevinsky18 said:
Anyone familar with Prince Propellers?
What sort of price range, quality, customer service?
They are maple and carbon fiber props. Does anyone know if you can fly these in rain?
Do you have one or just asking? There are many props out there. Prince has been around for a long time. I did a web search and I don't find any negative thing about Prince.
I remember Van had a Fixed pitch wood prop shoot-out, competition a long time ago (1990) with Cafe Foundation. He flew his RV-6 and changed out the propeller how may times needed for all props tested (a lot). Some performed better than others and each manufactures "pitch" measurement is different or varies. 10-15 years ago wood props where common, but now constant speed and the metal Sensenich has become more popular. The current popular fixed prop is Catto with the wood/glass construction, but the Catto does cost more than the traditional wood prop. "Back in the day" you could get a wood prop for $500-$800. Wood props with varnish finish are pretty and light. Down side is no rotational mass (like the Prince Maple) and therefore idle is poor. Some use to add the Landoll Harmonic dampener (12 lbs!). It adds weight but makes the idle smoother. On RV-7's too light on the nose can cause CG tail heavy problems, e.g., baggage very limited. On a RV-6 or even RV-4 light props are good.
There at one time use to be a bunch of companies and individuals making wood props for homebuilts, Prince being one. Some manufactures I recall (may or may not be around, no particular order):
Catto
Sterba
Warnke
Prince
Props Inc.
Pacesetter
Performance Propellers
Felix Propellers
Aymar Demuth
You can look up some contacts on the RV yellow pages.
Rain? No wood prop can fly in rain at full power with our damage. Most have a urethane leading edge but it takes a beating as well as the back side of the blade in rain. It's just the nature of the beast, so you slow down and throttle back a little. Even the wood/fiberglass props take a beating but the glass is better than wood but they still need leading edge abrasion strips.
Do you plan on flying in rain a lot, than Sensenich is the way to go. I am a big fan of Sensenich because of price and performance and of course rain is almost a non-issue. I say almost because if you fly any prop through rain long enough at high speed/RPM it will abrade the finish, especially the leading edge. Of course metal is way harder than wood, varnish or fiberglass. They make "water jet cutters" to cut metal and carbon fiber in manufacturing, so enough said.
I would be more worried about service. You will not beat Sensenich, a big company. Also metal props can be re-pitch if you need to, say you reduce the drag on your plane or gain some power with an engine mod. Catto is very popular but than that affects turn around with a small company, but folks like them.