I posted the question on the Velocity list serve (known as the Reflector) and received this response which seems to be the same as the impression I was under.

                    "I called the factory to ask the same question. I was told it is good to have 8.5-9" of clearance(though some get by with slightly less).
 
                    The reason is that it does not take much rotation to get a positive rate of climb due to the wing incidence. You just have to make sure to land it correctly when you get back home :)
 
                   With my 173 FGE, I have just over 9" of clearance with a 76" 3-blade CS. "

Thanks for the awareness.  I knew I couldn't post pictures without someone noticing something ;-).  Thanks for having my back....

Chris


________________________________________
From: Rotary motors in aircraft [flyrotary@lancaironline.net] on behalf of dlomheim@aol.com [dlomheim@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 04, 2011 6:06 AM
To: Rotary motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] Velocity Prop Clearance

A neighbor at our airpark who is transitioning from rotary wing to fixed wing got the nose way up on his Velocity and eliminated a bit of the tip on one of three blades on his nice MT prop.  Expensive mistake no doubt, so be careful w/that...
Doug
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
--
Homepage:  http://www.flyrotary.com/
Archive and UnSub:   http://mail.lancaironline.net:81/lists/flyrotary/List.html