Prince P-Tip Prop Failure

[KTS]

FYI

Hi Lonnie,

A most unfortunate incident occurred yesterday while at the Rockford Illinois fly-in.

both halves of the propeller came off in flight. The propeller was mounted on a ZDZ 210.

Most unfortunate that not only did the prop disintegrate but the resulting vibration shook the heck out of the front of my 3.1Meter FMG Composite Raven. This is a very rare airplane here in the states. I am concerned that I will be able to get any replacement parts that might be needed e.g. motor dome mount.

Myself and my compadres are all perplexed as to how this could have happened. The prop was in perfect alignment with the Tru Turn aluminum Spinner. The prop was in pristine condition. The performance combination was fabulous.

Can you offer any insight or suggestions? What will a replacement prop run?

Obviously I have a lot of repair work in front of me to get her back in the air. I would like to continue to run your prop but certainly don't want to go through this again.

If you would like to discuss this real-time please don't hesitate to call me on my cell at (636) 399-7764.

Respectfully,

Kurt Seiter

Eureka, Missouri

Mr. Seiter,

I am unhappy to hear of this mishap. There are multiple reasons why this mishap occurred just like any other high performance component fails such as servo's, rvr's, or any other part that I and most people use in our models as well full size aircraft. I Most likely one blade separated and the vibration took out the other blade.

Your propeller is a 34" diameter 12" pitch. At the moment we do not have these in stock. On most Large Model Aircraft we are retooling our programs for better production. Along with a massive amount of military work we do not plan to produce these propellers until November of this year.

It's not much but I will give a 10% discount off a new propeller.

Lonnie Prince
Prince Aircraft Company
6774 Providence St.
P.O. Box 2669
Whitehouse, Ohio 43571http://www.princeaircraft.com/Tel. 419-877-5557
Fax 419-877-5564

[Cracky]

Kurt, that sucks to hear. How much damage happened to your Raven?

[Chris Puckett]

Greg Friend was telling me about this. Sucks to hear. Hope you get the FMG back together soon those are awesome aircraft. 10% to me means time to try someone elses prop.

[Cracky]

Chris, I was thinking how hard your 210's pulled on your ultimates. Thats one strong motor...

[SleepyC]

Did you tach the prop?
I have 3 p-tips I just got and all 3 have MAX RPM statements on them.
(Something like 5630 RPMS)


I'm not insinuating anything, I'm just asking if the RPM's were checked after the motor/prop combo was established?

[StickerBiotch]

Kurt,

I had heard someone talking about your mufflers that are cut slanting forward toward the prop will create a harmonic that will harm the prop. It would be an interesting discussion to hear the results of a finding like this if it's true that this would hurt a prop. I have seen guys cut their mufflers to the rear before but not to the front.
Does anyone know if this could have been the problem?

[YNOT]

How many flight's were on the prop?

[xtreem3d]

kurt bought the prop from me and it may have had about 10-15 flights plus his one or two flights. about a day before the incident a pretty clever guy at the field remarked about a harmonic disturbance caused by the exhaust being directed forward of the fuse,( towards the prop) causing full size props to fail in this manner but i don't remember the plane...i think kurt knows what plane was known for this.

[3ddd]

10% my butt,give him any prop he wants free or fix his dam plane

[Flyinrazrback]

When I had a 27-10 P-tip fail, he told me to send it in and he would fix it. He fixed it, added 3oz total weight to the prop, and within 4-5 flights it failed again. No more P-tips for me.

[3ddd]

he actually tried to fix a prop instead of replacing it? what a joke for the money they charge

[Flyinrazrback]

Yes, the tips delaminated, using the prop on a DA 100. I sent it in, he fixed it, and sent it back to me. I ran it for a couple flights and it was fine, put it on a 3W 106 and in another couple flights the tips delaminated again. I also forgot to mention we had another one fail on the same 3W 106, this time a 28x10 (tips delaminated). Great props if they stay intact, but for the $$ not worth it IMO.