Neal@F14
Well Known Member
Well I got the prop installed and a couple hours flown on it today. Here's my first report on it... more to come later.
I also took pictures of the install, and will post them to this thread later.
First impressions... it's smooth, really smooth. The enormous P-factor and tendency for the plane to want to suddenly side-step to the left upon leaving the ground that the wood prop had, seems to be gone or vastly diminished. It needs much less right rudder on takeoff now.
I started with the #4 pitch pin and it looks like I need to bump it up to the #5 pin tomorrow. I got almost 2400 static rpm, and did my high-speed tests at 8500MSL, which was 10500 density altitude since we were at +2000 feet on the ground this afternoon. I was able to hit 199-200MPH TAS at 2700rpm at that altitude which means that it's pitched a bit too shallow with the #4 pin. Acceleration and climb on takeoff was notably improved over the old Aymar-Demuth wood prop. The plane felt more positively under control and in the air immediately after lift-off too, instead of the wallowing feeling the wood prop gave me until I built up a bit more airspeed.
This prop "feels" more like a metal prop than a wood prop. It also slows down in the pattern much more readily when I throttle back too.
So far I'm liking it a lot. It also looks fantastic on my plane.
More to come later.... gotta run for now.
I also took pictures of the install, and will post them to this thread later.
First impressions... it's smooth, really smooth. The enormous P-factor and tendency for the plane to want to suddenly side-step to the left upon leaving the ground that the wood prop had, seems to be gone or vastly diminished. It needs much less right rudder on takeoff now.
I started with the #4 pitch pin and it looks like I need to bump it up to the #5 pin tomorrow. I got almost 2400 static rpm, and did my high-speed tests at 8500MSL, which was 10500 density altitude since we were at +2000 feet on the ground this afternoon. I was able to hit 199-200MPH TAS at 2700rpm at that altitude which means that it's pitched a bit too shallow with the #4 pin. Acceleration and climb on takeoff was notably improved over the old Aymar-Demuth wood prop. The plane felt more positively under control and in the air immediately after lift-off too, instead of the wallowing feeling the wood prop gave me until I built up a bit more airspeed.
This prop "feels" more like a metal prop than a wood prop. It also slows down in the pattern much more readily when I throttle back too.
So far I'm liking it a lot. It also looks fantastic on my plane.
More to come later.... gotta run for now.