How long until prop O/H

"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
m...
Doug Vetter wrote in message
et...
Robert M. Gary wrote:
My Hertzile (?sp?) has almost 900 since its been torn down. I've heard
different things from different mechanics. I know the actual TBO on
the prop is now something like 20,000 hours. However, I don't want to
get stuck somewhere with a problem. How much time do most people here
put on their props?
BTW: I think the last overhaul was about 10 years ago.
-Robert

I'll echo Ron's response, and add the following.

Our two-blade blade Hartzell CS prop TBO is 2000 hours or 5 years.
That's pretty typical for props of this type. It is highly unlikely any
prop would have a 20000 hr TBO. That sounds more like a life limit to
me. Lower calendar TBOs are specified if the airplane is kept outside.
Call the manufacturer or a good overhaul shop for more information.

Ok, it sounds like I should at least break open the hub and have it
resealed at next year's annual. The Mooney shop told me that bumping
the TBO to 20,000 really meant that there was no TBO specified for the
prop. However, I'm not sure what problems I'd see before I needed
work. For some things the "don't fix it if it ain't broke" works well.
For others, you could get stuck at some crappy airport in the middle
of no where. I don't want that.
At my last annual I opted to have the mags broken open and inspected
rather than overhauled. The mags ended up looking really good and we
opted to not overhaul them. I only ended up spending a few hundred on
the open/close. We did replace some inexpensive parts (like contacts).

-Robert

Of course then there's the recent thread in this group about the prop that
came "unglued" right after takeoff. The owner was lucky to get back to the
airport if I remember right. I sometimes think TBOs are a concept originally
developed by an advertising department.