Robert,

  You might try feathering your propeller over a long airport at a safe altitude (above 5000') and see how long it takes to unfeather.  Please don't get too low before you decide to land with it feathered, plan ahead. Additionally check the unfeathering on the ground, this is the situation that requires unfeathering paddles and it is not a lot better in the air. We had an engine that did not want to start after checking the feathering over a long airport and lost over 3500' before it unfeathered. Also you don't need a starter with an accumulator to unfeather. I do a lot of twin engine checkrides and I love the aircraft with unfeathering accumulators, easy on the starter and on the pilots. We had a Mooney with a Hartzell full feathering prop and a Lancair with a full feathering prop (both MT and Hartzell) and the accumulator was very nice on all three applications. The Mooney Rocket was very hard to unfeather in flight before we added the accumulator, the Lancair was slightly better with the Hartzell prop.

Jack Webb

L360 & LIV