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John,
I looked pretty seriously at the IVO a number of years ago. But was scared off by a number of things:
1) Watched Dave Atkins repairing a delaminated trailing edge on the flight line at Copperstate fly-in.
2) A friend with a Kolb Firestar/Rotax 503/ground adjustable IVO had the prop come apart in flight resulting in a forced landing that totaled the plane.
3) Tracy's experience re reduced performance at speed.
4) The issues experienced by Lyc powered users.
Numbers 1 & 2 were possibly due to something going through the prop with the engine running. Issue 4 seems to be not relevant. This leaves Tracy's experience with the IVO. I wasnt thinking about the fact that you fly a pusher when I asked, but presumably a pusher would not have the prop root issue that Tracy reported. On my RV-4 I use a much larger than stock spinner and this issue may not be as significant as it was for Tracy. But I'm not sure I want to buy one to find out. My current prop seems to be pretty close though I havent flown it enough to really make a judgement.
Thanks for the feedback.
Mike Wills
RV-4 N144MW
----- Original Message ----- From: "John Slade" <sladerj@sbcglobal.net>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 9:41 PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] IVO Prop
>I didn't know anyone had ever had any success with an IVO. Tell me more.
What do you want to know? Its a very well engineered piece of equipment. The CF blades are hollow and have a steel rod running to the hub. Activating the motor via brushes twists the steel and thus twists the blades equally. The twist change is quite visible. There were problems with the individual blades slipping on the hub. This has been solved by providing a knurled hub, and not selling to guys with Lycomings. The IVO is available for rotary, subaru, Franklin 6 and other less "pulsy" engines. After the first 15 hours or so my blades have hardly taken any extra torque.
My performance is greatly enhanced compared to the fixed pitch Performance prop. Static with the wood prop was around 4500. With the IVO on full fine I get closer to 5400 which gives me access to a lot more power on take off. I've never done a "high speed" run with the IVO, but I've had 180 kts indicated at 2000' a few times without much effort, and without ever going to the full course setting. Another nice bonus is that throttled back on full fine for landing, the prop acts like a brake. Its much easier to land and stop than the fixed pitch that's pushing you along fairly well, even at idle.
I know a Velocity driver (Mike Watson) who also uses an IVO (Franklin 6) and is very happy with it after around 5 years of use.
The factory people are very easy to deal with and very helpful.
The Cozy Girrrls are installing an IVO. What better recommendation could you want? :)
Regards,
John Slade
Turbo Rotary Cozy IV, N96PM
98.1 Hrs.
Mike Wills wrote:
Mike Wills
RV-4 N144MW
----- Original Message ----- From: "John Slade" <sladerj@sbcglobal.net>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 10:30 AM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Ground Testing
The IVO electric in-flight adjustable costs around $2350. I'm very pleased with mine. My "spare" is a $2700 fixed pitch wood prop thats a piece of art, but doesn't work anywhere near as well.
John
Tracy Crook wrote:
A variable pitch prop would be nice to get the best of both worlds but it's an expensive option and $10,000 buys a lot of gas.
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