Fri Sep 04, 2015 12:30 am
#1402438
We got a brand new DA20-C1 where the reliable 912 engine had been replaced by an unreliable IO-240 engine that was to give us so much trouble in the following months...
But what shocked me most was the cheapo nasty Sensenich propeller fitted to it... Vancouver is known for rain, and here was an amateur propeller with a resin leading edge on it!
I knew resin leading edges from home made propellers in England
(Give me an Evra any day, very good propellers).
The DA20-C1 could not be operated in BC with this propeller.
I phoned Calgary and Edmonton to ask what they did... "We don't fly these aircraft when it rains" was the answer. Both places had gone through several propellers that shattered in the rain.
I was told that the RPM should be reduced to 2,000 if the DA20-C1 Eclipse is flown in rain.
We'd bought a crappy aeroplane we could not operate. I always regard Diamond as being a 90% company, they go that far with their products but can't be bothered to go the extra 10%.
Then I learned that MT supplied a propeller under an STC and it had a metal leading edge.
Off came that Sensenich like hot snot, and on went an brand new MT propeller, and that propeller is still on the aircraft 7 years and 3,000 hours later.
I don't care if you fly full throttle through the rain with the MT propeller fitted, and I could sleep at nights.
So what if a little paint comes off, it's wear and tear on a prop regardless of what it's made of. It can be touched up.
There are propellers and propellers.
I was shocked to find a Hoffmann propeller made with resin leading edges... It came with a Katana we bought... It was relegated to spare, emergency use status.
Home builders were restricted to resin leading edges as an improperly attached metal leading edge can come off like a bullet!
If you're smart you will buy an Evra, Hoffmann, or MT propeller with metal leading edges.
These props cost three times as much as anything else, but you can fly with the confidence that those blades flying at high subsonic speeds will survive.
I flew the Stolp Starlet out of Old Sarum once, it was under propped at that time. I told them to buy an Evra.
The Evra D11-28-4C propeller on the Condors lasted years and years and years, and those Condors flew in all weathers, with the occasional precautionary landing!
(Not by me, I didn't push the weather like that myself).
MichaelP
Wandering the World