vfrazier
Well Known Member
I decided to replace the wood prop on my RV-4 with a Sensenich composite ground adjustable prop.
I have an older (1994) RV-4 with the old style fixed pitch cowling and a 12" diameter spinner. The engine is a 160HP Lyc. The cowling and 12" spinner required using a non-standard Sensenich spinner, nonetheless it looks good.
Since my RV-4 had a 2 color spinner originally, I wanted to duplicate that look. I also decided to go "all-in" on the binary colors and chose one white blade and one black blade. This was partly to mimic, albeit rather weakly, the Super Corsair that was at Oshkosh a few years back with 3 black blades and 1 white blade. It looked very cool in the air as you could easily see the 1 white blade spinning.
If the unseasonably mild weather holds out, I plan to do the initial flight tests tomorrow to confirm the pitch setting.
Sharp eyed viewers are asking themselves "Why is his canopy non-standard and what effect does it have on anything?" Well, I built this plane when I was in my 20's and had no extra money at the time. When I cracked the canopy bubble on a weld bead on the canopy frame, I had to figure out a way to save it. Since the small crack was right at the #7 bulkhead, I chopped it off, which removed the crack, and mounted the ducktail to the turtledeck permanently. As far as performance, it added at least 10 knots and gives me a place to store my ball cap, head set, etc. Honestly, I'm not so sure that I wouldn't do it again if I were building another 4.
I have an older (1994) RV-4 with the old style fixed pitch cowling and a 12" diameter spinner. The engine is a 160HP Lyc. The cowling and 12" spinner required using a non-standard Sensenich spinner, nonetheless it looks good.
Since my RV-4 had a 2 color spinner originally, I wanted to duplicate that look. I also decided to go "all-in" on the binary colors and chose one white blade and one black blade. This was partly to mimic, albeit rather weakly, the Super Corsair that was at Oshkosh a few years back with 3 black blades and 1 white blade. It looked very cool in the air as you could easily see the 1 white blade spinning.
If the unseasonably mild weather holds out, I plan to do the initial flight tests tomorrow to confirm the pitch setting.
![Sensenich-prop-12-24-19-3-scaled-e1577334324308.jpg](/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.f1aircraft.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F12%2FSensenich-prop-12-24-19-3-scaled-e1577334324308.jpg&hash=6c28bb32d06ab4b21b87c49ef62048b6)
![Sensenich-prop-12-24-19-2-scaled-e1577334179421.jpg](/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.f1aircraft.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F12%2FSensenich-prop-12-24-19-2-scaled-e1577334179421.jpg&hash=418f51ad071c27eeda4049752cebb8ba)
![Sensenich-prop-12-24-19-1-scaled-e1577334255295.jpg](/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.f1aircraft.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F12%2FSensenich-prop-12-24-19-1-scaled-e1577334255295.jpg&hash=cb46dcff535209193952aa747901c1d0)
Sharp eyed viewers are asking themselves "Why is his canopy non-standard and what effect does it have on anything?" Well, I built this plane when I was in my 20's and had no extra money at the time. When I cracked the canopy bubble on a weld bead on the canopy frame, I had to figure out a way to save it. Since the small crack was right at the #7 bulkhead, I chopped it off, which removed the crack, and mounted the ducktail to the turtledeck permanently. As far as performance, it added at least 10 knots and gives me a place to store my ball cap, head set, etc. Honestly, I'm not so sure that I wouldn't do it again if I were building another 4.