wrote:

On Mar 2, 12:22 pm, "george" wrote:
On Mar 2, 6:02 pm, "Crash Lander" wrote:





"Morgans" wrote in message

...

"Crash Lander" wrote

The Skyfox Gazelle I fly has a wooden prop. It has just been
re-furbished. It truly is an awesome piece of work. One
downside however is that the a/c cannot/should not be flown in
even light rain, as the raindrops pit the prop.

I take that it does not have any metal or resin leading edge
inserts to protect it?
--
Jim in NC

It does have resin leading edge inserts, but they take a beating
just from dry weather flying. I was always paying close attention
to them during my pre-flight inspection, because I was noticing
the damage slowly getting worse from week to week.
It may be a case of once the damage starts, it's all down hill
for the inserts. I'm not sure. Perhaps the new ones will be more
durable. The a/c has no screen wipers anyway. Also, being
basically a kit plane, I can't imagine it's all that water tight!
;-) Oz Lander

We used to have brass/copper strips on the leading edge of the
propellers.
Easily replaced- Hide quoted text -

Moisture gets under the brass and the wood rots behind it.
The edges of the brass mess up the airflow and reduce the prop's
efficiency. My wooden prop has a leading edge cast into it that's made
of "hard urethane," as the builder told me, and I suspect it's one of
Devcon's many urethane products, perhaps the ceramic-filled one that's
often used for repairing dinged-up machine tool ways or conveyor chain
slideways. Really abrasion-resistant, and after ten years it looks
like new. When I someday get around to building a prop that's what
I'll edge it with.

Here's a couple of their products, but in epoxies:

http://www.devcon.com/devconfamilypr...d=111&catid=15
http://www.devcon.com/devconfamilypr...d=100&catid=19

I can't find the old abrasive-resistant hard urethanes I used to use.
Maybe they dropped them.

Dan

I got a lok at the newly re-dressed prop on the a/c I learn in today,
and was surprised to see the inserts had not been replaced. They'd just
replaced/applied the laquer stuff.

--
Oz Lander.
I'm not always right,
But I'm never wrong.