Q tip props

stallnfall · Post by **stallnfall** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 8:41 am

Anyone out there have any gravel expexence with the 4 bladed q tip props on a Pa-31? If so how are they for soft fields, and for picking up damage?

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 12:16 pm

Yep. No difference on gravel. I notice they accelerate slightly better on the takeoff roll at low speeds.

xsbank · Post by **xsbank** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 1:29 pm

And significantly more costly to repair if you do ding one.

We do not do runups on gravel, do we? Actually, if you are into the same gravel regularly, it is worth taking a drum of Raybinder (sp?) into the spot where you normally park, as it seems to me most of the damage occurred during cool-down idle for the turbos and using power to turn.

Unsolicited, but what the hell.

stallnfall · Post by **stallnfall** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 6:28 pm

Thanks for the replys, but I am not new to gravel just to the idea of a 4 bladed Q tip prop?

Boeing Driver · Post by **Boeing Driver** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 11:24 pm

We had the Q tip props on one of our Chieftains, and it was a real dog. We always thought that it was the engines (even though they boosted to 49"MP), but thankfully, one of our guys wrote the props off on a gravel strip. Once they replaced them with "normal" props, it performed just fine. It might be different if you had the entire panther conversion kit, but just the props didn't work for us.

Cheers!