REFLECTOR: CATTO

[HYTEC45 at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/24/2005 5:49:56 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
cjensen at dts9000.com writes:

What  won't change is the tradeoffs....climb, cruise, weight and money...you 
pick  your pleasure.


Forgotten is RELIABILITY.  I would not fly my mt out of my  state.  After the 
6 returns for major warranty repair over 240hrs of  operation, and being told 
that all my problems (grease leaks, bearings literally  beating there self's 
apart, blade fractures are due to my electronic ignition,  10 to 1 pistons, 
and operating it on a IO-360.  I elected to spend an  additional 4.5K (blades, 
installation, and damaged parts due to vibration in  45hrs of operation) on the 
"new and improved" blades. I was told that  these blades would solve all my 
problems.   After one hour of  operation with the new blades, I noticed 3 
blisters at the tip on one blade,  followed by two additional blisters on a another 
blade after an additional 2  hours of operation.  mt said that it was 
probably wood sap that was trapped  in the laminates and worked it self out to the 
tip.  One blister is  approximately 3/8" X 3/4" long.  There fix was to drill 
1/16" holes in the  blisters, fly it to let the sap sing out, then use 5 min. 
epoxy to fill the  holes.  However, the de-lamination is still present.  This is 
what I  spent an extra 4.5K for?????  When I pulled the spinner off after 5 
hours,  the inside of the spinner again was covered with grease, along with the 
inside  of the blade root.  The spinner will trap the initial leakage, then 
it will  "run over" and start appearing on the blades.  They said that "normal" 
 leakage is to be expected.  This is the same rate as before the "new and  
improved" blades were purchased that were suppose to fix all this.  They  said 
now to "clean the prop, and fly for 5 hours to measure leakage".  To  date, I 
have around $17,000 in my mt with only 240 hours of operation, and  over 8 
failure of components that grounded the prop.  Again, the prop  will be coming off 
in short order to address the grease problem that mt has not  been able to 
fix in three try's, including advising me to replace the blades at  MY expense.  
Fortunately, my "Performance" propeller has picked up the  slack during all 
this.  Call me stupid, but at some point, I guess I should  through in the 
towel, and cut my losses.  With $17,000 I could of bought my  dream shotgun.
 
With all my problems with my mt over the years, I don't think I am an  
isolated case.  I think that Velocity is "looking the other way" in regards  to 
pushing the mt.  Without a CS propeller, there product has a limited  performance, 
and as of now, mt is the only game in  town.
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