"EDR" wrote in message
...
In article , Larry Smith
wrote:

Looking for data on how much better, if any, one of the subject aircraft
performs with a Warp Drive or similiar prop.
We can't install anything but certified wood props (or expensive
aluminum
ones) on our old birds. Thus, what we need is hard data so maybe we can
approach FAA to let us convert to carbon fiber props.

I fly a 65 hp 1945 Champ with an aluminum prop.

Let me guess. A 7444? 7443? McCauley or Sensenich? Those props are
hard to find used and a new one is over $2500. Look in the ACS catalog.
I'd like to have one on my 65hp Taylorcraft but stay with the wooden
Sensenich 7442, which is much less efficient than your aluminum prop.

OTOH, a Warp Drive would cost $500 and is more efficient, if what I hear
from Canadian fliers with A-65's and Warp Drives on their certified birds
like Champs, Chiefs, Taylorcrafts, 120's, and Luscombes is accurate.

I have seen Warp Drive
props on friends Ezes. The coning scares me! Setting them to the proper
angle is tricky.

You can set one with ease. No big deal with the right tool, just a matter
of setting the same angle for each blade. Wouldn't it be nice to have a
ground-adjustable prop? What's "coning"?

I have never heard of a catastophic failure of one of these carbon fiber
propellers. With its high strength-to-weight ratio and the characteristic
stiffness of carbon, it is the ultimate material for propellers --- better
than steel, aluminum, wood, or any other material.

A friend of mine dinged the wooden prop on his 160 HP RV-6, and he filled
the ding with JB Weld, according to the fashion. A few weeks later he's at
8500 feet when the prop section about 14" long lets go at the stress riser.
He was barely able to make it back to a field and was afraid the vibration
would pull the engine off the mount.

Yeah, I'd go with an aluminum prop but don't want to pay 2.5k for one. Why
can't I use a Warp Drive which is ground-adjustable, state-of-the-art, more
efficient and costs so much less?

There's something wrong here. You can buy the finest forged steel Carrillo
connecting rods for a tenth of what rods cost from Teledyne Continental.
TCM wants something like $800 for two connecting rods to replace condemned
rods they had Cornell Forge make for them -- and which are unsafe because
they disintegrate in flight, and are the subject of a TCM critical service
bulletin. Something's not right.