Jeff said,
> "If the current owner ever sends that prop back to Prince for repair,
he might want to have Prince add a bit of pitch into the prop."
I had the 52 x 52 Sterba that came with my plane sitting in the hangar
unused once I'd bought a Prince, then later on another Sterba (52 x 56).
The 52 x 52 had a lot of miles and years on it. The urethane leading
edges were slightly worn and overall I thought it could do with a refurb
job. When I sent it to Ed I asked him to put some pitch in it if
possible. When I got it back (a job he did for free, BTW), I found no
difference in performance with it even though he said he had tried to add
pitch. Apparently it's easier to take pitch out than to put it in. It
may not be all that easy to take pitch out however, hence the prop maker
cutting two inches off of the prop Jeff had sent in for re-pitching. I
wonder Jeff, did that prop maker ask you about cutting the length before
he did it? If not, which prop maker did that? Without checking with
you, cutting a prop like that would be really annoying.
My Prince went to Edmonton, Alberta to go on a KR originally built in
Nova Scotia. We may see it at a Gathering someday.
Mainly I wanted to say that putting pitch into an already existing prop
is pretty problematic/difficult. Sterba said he tried to do it with the
52 x 52 but there was no difference in performance. That prop ended up
going back to the person who had originally bought it from Ed in 1987,
Ken Cottle, the builder of my N335KC. Originally it was a 54 x 52 but
Ken cut an inch off each tip to get more RPM's so he could beat Jim
Faughn. They built their planes around the same time and did a lot of
flying together. After I sent this prop back to Ken, he used it on the
Sam Bailey KR he had bought from Sam. Ken sold that plane and prop not
long ago to a fellow in Minnesota. It left on a trailer and the new
owner never flew it. The usual reasons I suppose, although as a plane
with conventional gear there's really nothing tricky in flying these
things. Anyway, he traded it to a fellow in Michigan in return for an
ultralight or Light Sport . . . don't recall what Ken said just now. The
fellow in Michigan is now selling it back to Ken for less money than what
Ken sold it to the Minnesota guy for, so he's made a profit on it. The
ultralight Ken is currently flying isn't very much fun compared to his KR
so Ken is getting it back. What Ken has got is a "Chimp" - a knock-off
of a Champ with a Rotax 582 (I think). It looks kinda cute but, of
course, isn't an airplane.
I wonder what the status is of the Sam Bailey KR that went to Marc Baca?
We don't hear much from Marc lately, that I've noticed. Marc got that KR
from Ryan here at Chapter 14 some years back. Ryan had driven to Kansas
to pick it up from Sam. A third Sam Baily KR-1 is in a museum somewhere
around Pratt, KS where Sam lives. Sam went to a Grumman I think, or
maybe a Cherokee. I saw him take off for Denver when I stopped in Pratt
for fuel the last time I went to Mt. Vernon. One would think he would
have stopped to look at my KR and say hi but apparently he was in a
hurry. He had his wife with him and they had an appointment in Denver
(the FBO guy said) . . . so I didn't get to meet him.
Mike
KSEE
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