REFLECTOR:MT 540 Prop

[Brian Michalk]

Hehe.

Okay, in defense of IVO:
My buddies Velocity has been flying for almost two years with a Franklin/IVO
combination.

I swore off IVO several years before that and was skeptical of the the IVO
quality.  He put an IVO on his airplane due to two big reasons: Center of
gravity, and cost.  The weight of the IVO is much lighter than the MT.  And,
well, the cost.

I went over this airplane many times before the first flight and was present
at several engine starts.  Whenever I was at his hangar, and I could find a
torque wrench, I would note the position of the wrench, crack loose the nut,
then retorque the nut to specs.

Now, I know that he torqued the bolts after the first run-up, but I was the
only person to torque them after other runups.  On every single case, on
every bolt, the retorqing position returned to  the same place where it was
before I got to it.  This means that there was no settling or shifting of
blades in flight, or engine starts.

He has the fabled stainless tapes.  They look the same the day he put them
on the prop.

At about the 10 or twenty hour mark, a bolt went through the prop, and he
had to send a blade off for repair.  I think the entire repair including
shipping was less than $200.

Granted, my observation is a single data point.  I've seen the prop,
scrutinized it, and feel that it is safe for me.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: reflector-admin@tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-admin@tvbf.org]On
> Behalf Of Chuck Jensen
> Sent: Friday, October 31, 2003 8:58 AM
> To: 'reflector@tvbf.org'
> Subject: RE: REFLECTOR:MT 540 Prop
>
>
> IVO has said they are bringing out a hi-HP prop for the 540 (maybe it's a
> stutter thing but they've been saying the same thing for a number
> of years)
> but the comments on Reflector about IVO were uniformly negative
> and I didn't
> really notice anyone inclined to rise to their defense.
>