Rainex

[horsefeathers]

I used Aerospace 303 on several yachts with excellent results in terms of lack of UV degradation and general limitation of salt encrustation etc. but it's a bit hard to gauge its effectiveness as a water dispersant when it's waves coming over the coamings. It certainly claims water dispersal.

Pity it wasn't around when the Titanic set sail

 

 

[Oscar]

Few days back we toddled off South, weather looked ok, about 3 hrs later we are by now heading home, yip, the weather was closing in, rain cells ahead, we weaved our way around them as best poss, by now the cells are getting more wet, more closing in, retreating was not an option by now, ordinarily I do my in rain management, no probs, but this time I was forced to gain about 3000ft to get up onto my home turf area, all ended up good. Prop got quite a workout with rain damage, so yesterday I sanded it back removing all the damage etc, re coated it with polyurethane paint. Today........I took it for a blat, to check balance etc etc was all good. Bloody hell, me jab was like a greyhound on steroids.....unreal. I,m pulling off power way under my normal cruise setting , achieving my normal cruise speed at around 97kts IAS......the difference was amazing in me jab. Moral of the story.....keep your prop in pristine condition it really pays, keep it as new.

Russ - you didn't cut through the glass sheathing, did you? That would be a very not good idea.

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

My experience with a 2005 prop and rain tells me that it doesn't take much to damage the leading edge protection. I replaced the prop when the failure occurred and recently sent the old one back to be repaired which was done and the prop is now as new. The problem was that when the LE failed the prop is out of balance, the out of balance damage potential is huge!

 

I will avoid rain at all costs if I can, the damage per rain incident might appear non existent but its cumulative and when you have enough in rain time the leading edge will fail. In my experience that total time to failure is not large.

 

When in rain I slowed the engine down as much as possible so it wasn't as though I was flat out or at normal cruise revs.......your mileage may vary etc.

 

I use the terminology rain, but it wasn't heavy rain in reality just light showers to showers

 

Andy

 

 

[jetjr]

I bought a CF prop which has rubber leading edge protection, never seen any rain damage...which is the plan.

 

But the story is I sold my best old timber prop to a guy who has wrecked his flying in rain, actual leading edge profile had changed, wasnt out of balance but level of damage was scary. L2 wouldnt let him fly out until he replaced it.

 

Few months later saw the AC again and my old prop was the same, torn apart. Whole aircraft was an terrible state and only 1 or 200 hrs old

 

 

[Russ]

Russ - you didn't cut through the glass sheathing, did you? That would be a very not good idea.

No.....stripped the lacquer big time, no other damages. Avoiding rain is best practice, but on occasions you just get wet, hopefully you can reduce revs to around 2100 and get through it, at a much reduced airspeed....this method does work on those moments.

 

Would like to see timber prop makers, include a stainless leading edge inlayed into the blade, with the epoxy's etc now available, and proven, I can't see why not. Extra costs, yes, but I for one, would pay that. Timber props look great, they are engine friendly as well.

 

 

[Oscar]

Good move, sir - the sheathing is not just for protection, but for torsional stiffness of the blades (I believe). A stainless l/e on such a thin prop might have adverse weight implications for the actual blade, but some of the fancier HDPE-derived plastics are pretty damn impressive as well (PEEK, for one).