Sport Pilot Talk

Looking at a Sportstar that has been derelict for at least 10 years at a local airport. In trying to estimate resurrection costs in order to decide on my offer, the one thing I don't have a handle on is the cost to overhaul the Woodcomp Klassic prop.

Anyone recently have one overhauled? Did you ship it to the factory, or is there someone here in the US that can be used?

I faced the same question a couple years ago for my Sting Sport. I found it more convenient, and less costly in total, to replace the prop rather than have it overhauled. Might be a different Woodcomp prop (mine is SR-200), but I got a new one from Sting distributer for about $1600. This included a new hub as well. Installed and adjusted it myself - no labor.

My recommendation is to neither overhaul the Woodcomp or install a new one. As long as it needs to come off, replace it with a new Warpdrive (the model with a nickel leading edge). Its only a couple of hundred more, and won't be prone to delaminatipn or leading edge abrasion. You will need an LoA from Evektor, and can order it through Steve Minnich.

Personally I am not a fan of the Warpdrive propellers. In my opinion they are too heavy, and not good for the Rotax gearbox. In flight observationon on a CT was that the performance was not as good, an opinion echoed by another CT owner.

Not long ago I instelled a E Prop on a CT. Overall I was really impressed by the performance, even though operation is different from propeller operation that I was used to. They are extremely light weight and low inertia, so good for the engine. If it is an option for the airplane I would give it serious consideration.

Good info and food for thought. Thanks!

Completely different airframe (RANS S-6 Coyote II), but when I purchased the plane it had a 3-blade Warp Drive prop (square tips without the nickel leading edge). Relocating from the high desert (Utah) to the lowlands (NE Texas), I really needed to re-pitch the prop because it was significantly under-pitched (too fine) for the altitudes I normally fly (2500-3500 MSL). But I had great difficulty trying to get all three blades to the same pitch... I'd set it so that all three blades matched, and begin torquing the bolts using the recommended torquing pattern. When I was done, I would re-check the prop pitch, and inevitably there would be one blade that was 1/2 degree off from the others. Back to square one, and repeat 3-5 times for each pitch change... Very frustrating - almost enough to make me just live with the "too fine" pitch.

Then one morning during pre-flight, I noticed a small chip in the leading edge. On closer examination (confirmed by a local A&P/IA), there was a crack in the blade, right in the bottom of that chip, and running about 60º to the long axis of the prop. Grounded. Thinking back, there were two possible causes of the chip, both on my previous flight. During the final Young Eagles flight on that day, I wound up flying through a rain shower on short final. So that might have caused the damage, though the rest of the leading edge was not eroded in any way. The other possibility is that I hit a very large bug that wound up causing the chip. There was some serious "bug splatter" on the cowling pretty much consistent with the chip on the prop. Either way, I was grounded.

My options were to send the entire prop to Warp Drive for them to analyze and either repair, or replace the blade(s). They could not give me a cost estimate for the repair/replacement until they completed their analysis. And if I wanted the nickel leading edges installed, it would be their "tape" approach, which seems a bit cheesy to me...

By this time, my frustrations with the Warp Drive prop had reached a point of no return, and I decided to replace the Warp Drive with a Sensenich ground-adjustable prop. It took a while for them to built it, but it arrived a few days ago, and I'm looking forward to installing it, and finally being able to re-set my prop's pitch without the aggravation. Their "pitch-setting pin" process is crazy-easy and fast. Takes longer to remove and re-install the spinner than it does to re-set the prop pitch. And it looks so much better! It will be pretty cool to be able to quickly re-pitch the prop to a finer pitch for STOL work or high-altitude, or go to coarse pitch for faster cruise speed, all without the PITA process required for the Warp Drive.

If you're replacing the prop, I'd take a hard look at the Sensenich G/A prop.

The Sensenich is a good prop. I've not used there pin system for adjusting blade pitch, but the ones I measured that used it were off more than I would like. I have a fixture with a digital level that I use for adjusting prop pitch. I can normally get them within 1/10th of a degree, if not dead on. The one bad thing about the Sensenich prop it that the black paint on the rear of the prop likes to chip of the metal leading edge. The paint is so thick it is hard to repair the chipped paint.