Prop Maintenance

[Relfy]

Moving on from the other great thread about Propellors and rain damage, I've also noticed that my prop has a few smaller stone chips out towards the tips. They are only very small and nothing out of the ordinary compared to most props on A/C I've used, but does anyone know if you can touch them up and if so what methods are used, or if this should be left to a professional to do in addition to the normal maintenance of your propellor? Do these chips cause a loss of prop performance apart from balance issues?

 

 

[slartibartfast]

I've had to repair mine after almost every outing lately. It's wood covered in fibreglass resin. I just repair it with more resin.

 

I sanded it way back and put many more coats on it over many weeks recently (while using the backup prop) after a very bad gouge (decachip in metric).

 

It ended up way out of balance, so I checked the symmetry and found I'd built the leading edge up too much on one side.

 

All good now, but again needed more work when I got back from Echuca. That's where a taildragger would be great. My prop is too close to the rough stuff.

 

 

[Guest davidh10]

You can repair carbon fibre props that have minor damage using appropriate epoxy. Refer to the manufacturer's instructions on what type and extent of damage is user repairable and how.

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Years ago when just about everybody was using a wood prop, we were in the habit of carrying a kit of two-minute epoxy around, together with a bit of baking soda.

 

Once the epoxy was applied you would sprinkle a bit of baking sodo on it which would instantly harded it (chemical reaction ??)...Real handy if you were trying to make it back to base before last light, after dinging the prop on some rough strip !.................Maj...

 

 

[RickH]

A lot of the carbon fibre prop manufacturers recommend against the "5min" type epoxies.

 

Regards

 

RickH