Hi
Flying in rain is a serious problem for un-coated /varnished) pure
wooden blades.
Last summer my friend flied through a heavy rain just few minutes and he
almost lost his blades!
All the blade tips [3] were gone and other parts of the blades were
damaged.
Now he is flying again with same prop. He just cut the damaged blade tip
ends. Now he has a real climbing prop he reported.
Plane: PIK-18 (only one in the world), engine VW, prop is hand made or
factory made, I do not know so far.
Engine revs before rain max 3000, now (with shortened blades) 3300 rpm !
Terveisin, Raimo Toivio
Europa XS Mono OH-XRT #417 +150 hrs
37500 Lemp=E4=E4l=E4
FINLAND
p +358-3-3753 777
f +358-3-3753 100
toivio@fly.to
www.rwm.fi
From: Sidsel og Svein Johnsen
Sent: Friday, June 11, 2010 10:09 AM
Subject: Europa-List: Propeller - Flying in rain
Here is the reply from Martin Eskildsen at Airmaster:
To my knowledge the blades should be fine in rain as the Nickel will
protect the leading edge. Plastic tape can also be used on the inner
part of the blade if necessary.
- and here are the comments from Daryl Heinemann at Warp Drive Inc.:
Martin is correct in that the blades will stand up very well to rain as
long as you have the nickel leading edges on them. We put on as much
nickel as we can based on the diameter of the propeller which will cover
almost half of the length of each blade. Once you get inboard of where
the nickel ends the speed of the blade at that point is much slower than
the tip so it is not as proned to wear or damage. The Stoneguard
leading edge tapes that we can provide are in 12" lengths. If you know
that you will fly through rain at some point we recommend cutting these
pieces in half and putting a 6" piece from the point where the nickel
ends towards the center. This will protect the remaining inner portion
of the blades leading edge and can be pulled off and replaced if it does
sustain damage.
The only other issue with flying in rain is wearing the painted finish
off the back side of the blade. We use a flat black lacquer paint for
the factory finish which will take some time to wear through but you may
start to see the carbon fabric pattern showing through over time. You
can re-apply the flat black lacquer paint if needed, however, you must
take care in giving the blades an even coat or else you can throw the
balance off. If you get to that point please let us know and we can
give more details on this.
Regards
Svein
LN-SKJ
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