REFLECTOR: Ivo and Vesta

Thu Apr 23 13:20:17 CDT 2009

Mike, 

That is good to hear!  After asking me tons of questions and carefully considering my setup, IVO said they would provide me a prop that would meet my needs. I have a 76" Magnum CS. I have not put it on yet because I want to get my painting done first. 

In fact, IVO Co. called me a while back just to make sure I was happy with the prop.. and I have had it on the shelf for years!. 

Hopefully it will be the right setup for my powerplant and provide me service like yours. 

Kurt 
340HP Aluminum 4.3L V-6

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Watson <mikewatsspg at gmail.com>
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list <reflector at tvbf.org>
Sent: Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:53 am
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Ivo and Vesta

I've been running a IVO Magnum Electric Constant speed prop on a
Franklin (Std Elite RG) for ten years plus. Sent back twice for check up
and refreshing. They are tough as nails, handles FOD well and as long
as Ivo's maintenance instructions are followed,  seems to last thousands
of hours.

On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 8:27 AM, Andy Millin <amillin at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

Hey Larry,

Believe it or not, I did a fair amount of research on the Ivo.  I wanted to use the Ivo.  I gave the guy a call and we spoke for nearly an hour.

Way back in the day Mark Machado had mounted an Ivo on a standard with an IO-360.  He was VERY impressed with the performance.   I believe the write up was in Velocity 
Views.  It sounded like it was going to be better than sliced bread AND peanut butter.  It is a real performer, great price, etc.

Ivo’s blades are very light.  The prop is amazingly light.  This is a blessing and a curse.  The prop does not have enough mass to absorb the significant torque thrashing a big bore aircraft engine produces.  In his own words “you could see the prop was just being tortured.”  At low RPM it was possible to see the blades flexing length wise as the amazing shear forces were hitting the base.

The blades are tough and as far as I know they never failed.  What did happen was the blades would shift at the base.  They would work their way free from the bolts.  Ivo compensated with a very specific torquing regimen combined with stainless steel foil marking tape on the seams.  I believe this worked.  However … not all users of the prop were as vigilant or patient as they needed to be.

I believe Ivo called for torque the bolts, run the engine, re-torque the bolts, re-run the engine, repeat until the torque does not change between cycles.

In 1997, Mark Ewart and his family were killed  (Standard Velocity DMO-266).  Please read the report yourself: http://tinyurl.com/dhok3m   It was RELATED to the Ivo.  The detail related to the Prop is on the second page.  Reading the whole report is better.

In the end Ivo decided to stop fight
ing with big bore aircraft engines and their violent torque curves.  His props really can withstand 750 HP, you just have to have a relatively smooth power curve.  Ivo has been a very good option for guys like Chris Barber running a rotary with reduction unit.  Smooth.

It works on the Franklin as a 6 cylinder 360 has smoother power curve than 4 cylinder 360.

As for the Vesta.  If you want to read back in the Archives, I was one of the first, possibly even the first from the Velocity community to speak with Jason Day.  Jason is a very nice guy.  I had acted as a bit of a liaison to get him to work with Velocity to develop a prop for us and have Velocity test the thing.

A major portion of Jason’s business is automotive conversions for aircraft.  His props have been running by-and-large on automotive engines with reduction units on them – read smooth power curve.

Jason’s stuff looks great.  I believe he has the background and skills to make a great prop.  Problem is, he didn’t have ANY experience with our prop running on an aircraft engine.  Velocity wanted to help, but were unwilling to risk Turbo Charlie $200K+ aircraft and a pilot on a completely untested prop.

Velocity suggested that Jason give the prop to testers in the Airboat industry and let them beat on it for a year.  I don’t believe Jason was willing and I’m pretty sure this has never been=2
0done.

Bob Buls owns one of Jason’s props.  Bob is also going to run it with one of Jason’s automotive conversions.

Dave Dent has a prop and has been working with Jason on it.  I sincerely wish Dave the best of luck on his flight testing and am eager to hear his findings.  This could be a great new option for us.

The other concern on the Vesta is the weight.  It is a heavy prop.  I believe it might weigh 50 to 100% more than the MT or Aero Composite.

Please form your own opinions based on your own direct research.  For my soft pink body, I’ll wait for someone else to strap one on and hit the wild blue.

Andy

_______________________________________________
To change your email address, visit http://www.tvbf.org/mailman/listinfo/reflector

Visit the gallery!  www.tvbf.org/gallery
user:pw = tvbf:jamaicangoose
Check new archives: www.tvbf.org/pipermail
Check old archives: http://www.tvbf.org/archives/velocity/maillist.html

-- 
Mike W.
1997 Velocity Elite RG
Franklin /IVO Electric CS
Dual GRT EFIS Synthetic Vision

_______________________________________________
o change your email address, visit http://www.tvbf.org/mailman/listinfo/reflector
Visit the gallery!  www.tvbf.org/gallery
ser:pw = tvbf:jamaicangoose
heck new archives: www.tvbf.org/pipermail
heck old archives: http://www.tvbf.org/archives/velocity/maillist.html

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.tvbf.org/mailman/private/reflector/attachments/20090423/25270e37/attachment-0001.htm>