REFLECTOR: Prop down time (was MT prop diameter)

[Pat Shea]

Yikes, 10 weeks AND a lot of money besides the actual
prop repair AND a lot of frustration...

Hey Scott B., any chance the Factory would be
interested in offering a "rental" fixed pitch prop
service? It would probably only take 3-4 models to
cover most installations.

I suspect that The Factory is the first call 90% of
the time after a prop goes down, so you guys probably
have a pretty good sense of the frequency of these
events based on size of the flying Velocity fleet -
use full info to run the numbers with.

Individuals having spare fixed pitch props lying
around in hangars in case something happens seems
collectively expensive - $7K in spare MT blades even
more so... Not to mention you need to find someone to
ship your spare prop from your hangar to your
(stranded) location.

I'm not suggesting the factory SHOULD offer this
service as there may be lots of good reasons why they
wouldn't want to, but maybe there's a service here
that makes both good business sense and happy
customers (us).

If liability is a deal breaker at the Factory level,
maybe one of the prop shops would be interested. They
obviously deal with this issue every day on
new/used/repaired props. Their fabrication/repair
costs would be lower and there would also be some
sales generation.

Just thinking out load, Pat

--- Kent Murley <kent at orbital.aero> wrote:

My plane was stranded three states away from home for
10 weeks waiting for a prop overhaul. Very expensive
when you factor in extra hangar fees, labor, making a
big box to ship it in (what are the chances your away
airport has an MT dealer that can take the blades out
of the hub to reduce the shipping cost?) shipping to
and from Florida (shipping to Germany for the overhaul
is included in price) and a last minute airfare to get
you home and then back to the away airport at some
random time in the future. So I now have 3 OHC blades
on the plane and three OHC blades in my hangar on
standby. 

About six months ago:

Buying three new blades outright (no hub) was quoted
at US$ 8900.

Buying three OHC blades outright (no hub) was quoted
at US$ 6682. 







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