My message wasnt meant to be a criticism of the prop balancer, though even
with Pete Jeffers excellent explanation I struggled to grasp exactly what he
was doing, and we balanced two propellers on the day. But then I didnt have
the benefit of the instruction manual.
I would certainly agree it is an excellent piece of kit but as with all
things it takes practice to get the best out of it. I suspect if a prop is
wildly off balance it would have shown this. In my case my prop was almost
perfectly balanced before we started (purely by chance) and we spent half an
hour moving washers all over the place ending up with a single light washer
under one of the spinner screws. If I wanted to be cynical I could say it
was a waste of time but then no one knew the prop was in balance before we
started. In such a situation an inexperienced operator would have spent all
day trying to improve on what turned out to be a perfectly balanced
propeller. After all its a bit of a bummer to discover that you spent 1,500
only to find it made no improvement.
IMHO I dont think its possible to know when a prop is in balance and when it
isnt (unless its a long way out). Only recently I took Andy Draper for a
flight and he commented as we taxied out to the runway that he thought the
prop was out of balance - that was a couple of months after it was balanced.
The fact is that the slow running jets are a bit out adjustment (and they
are buggers to adjust). At 3000rpm and above (where it counts) its as smooth
as silk.
The point I should have made that as for the Europa club its an expensive
investment (and as they are no longer available irreplacable!). Its much
quicker and easier to gete Pete to do the job than to try and do it
yourself. Like many others i'm the sort of person who goes out and buys a
gadget to do a job I know I will only ever do once. My workshop is full of
brand new tools that rarely see the light of day. For most of us 1,500 is a
big investment when you can get the job done for 50.
Hope that makes things clearer.
Carl.
PS: If anyone s interested we used a Twinmax carb balancer which I can
highly reccommend. Cost 50 or im happy to loan mine for a small
consideration. details here
http://www.calamander.co.uk/twinmax/twinmaxmk2.htm
----- Original Message -----
From: <pete@lawless.info>
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2007 5:59 PM
Subject: RE: } Europa-List: Prop Balancing
>
> Sorry Carl I totally disagree with you.
>
> Mark's balancer, one of which I own, is perfectly straight forward to set
> up and use and produces excellent results. I had no dificulty in
> balancing
> the NSI prop on my Classic and would recomend the equipment to any one.
> You don't need training just read the manual!
>
> Regards
>
> Pete
>
> Original Message:
> -----------------
> From: Carl Pattinson carl@flyers.freeserve.co.uk
> Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 08:02:38 +0100
> To: europa-list@matronics.com
> Subject: {Spam?} Europa-List: Prop Balancing
>
>
> <carl@flyers.freeserve.co.uk>
>
> The EUROPA club has its own prop balancer which is available to club
> members
> for a small charge.
>
> Because it is quite tricky to setup and difficult to interperet the
> readings
> (ie: you need training to get the best result) Pete Jeffers, the resident
> expert keeps the kit and will come and set it up for you. You need to
> balance the carbs beore hand as this affects the readings.
>
> Pete balanced our prop last year and the whole procedure took about an
> hour.
>
> I dont have his number but it is in the Europa Club mag somewhere.
>
> Carl Pattinson
> G-LABS
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Graham Singleton" <grahamsingleton@btinternet.com>
> To: <europa-list@matronics.com>
> Sent: Friday, June 08, 2007 12:02 AM
> Subject: Re: Europa-List: Re: Woodcomp propeller controls
>
>
>> <grahamsingleton@btinternet.com>
>>
>> If anyone needs a balance within reasonable distance of Derbyshire give
> me
>> a shout, I have Mark's balancer.
>> Graham
>>
>> Mark Burton wrote:
>>
>>> If you want a smooth prop - balance it!
>>>
>>> Mark
>>>
>>> --
>> Graham Singleton
>>
>> Tel: +441629820187
>> Mob: +447739582005
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
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> believed to be clean.
>
>
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