Anyone have any experience with the 3 blade WhirlWind prop on a 100hp 912? My brother's interested in one for his S-6S, but there doesn't seem to be many reviews out there about it yet. It's a great looking prop, light, a bit pricey. Also considering Warp (tough, heavy) and Kiev (light, smooth, prefer American made if possible though). What do we need to know?

I'm really interested in where this goes. I have heard that Whirlwind either has or will be having a good prop for that application. I have also heard some great things about the Cato prop. If I end up with something w/the 912, I will definately be looking at those 2. Whatever I get, I will probly be talking to Cato.
gary

Just received my WhirlWind prop via the big brown truck. It'll go on a RANS S7 powered by a Rotax 912. I would have had it on and flying a few days ago but there were a couple of parts missing in the shipment. I will say it is a gorgeous looking prop and looks well made. I weighed all the parts on my postal scale and it is light. Prop blades, hub, bolts, spinner and backing plate weighed 10.5 lbs!!!!
I had looked at the Kiev and a few others but settled on the WhirlWind due to speaking with Mark, a guy that recently wrote an article for Kitplanes Magazine. The article is about props and should be on shelves now. He had told me the WhirlWind was very smooth and he was having good results with it on his S7. I won't state his results in regards to performance increase but it was definitely what got my attention to try the prop myself.
Only reason I did not buy the Kiev was due to it being foreign made and the reports I had read on long wait times for parts. I was at Ted's place (Ted is the importer for the Kiev) with money in hand to buy one but for some reason my inner self told me to wait. Other than that it is a great prop.
My plane now has a 2 blade Warp and while I am happy with it I needed a new prop with a nickle leading edge. The Warp I have is a taper tip without a leading edge. I will be putting this plane on floats and need the prop edge protection otherwise I would not have spent the money for a new prop. The WhirlWind is NOT cheap. It cost a 'burger and coke'' shy of $2K.

I had a Whirlwind 4 bladed hydraulic constant speed prop on my T-51. I had the 912 uls-3 set up for the prop governor and it work very well. The prop and governor was about 11k, way too much money for an S7 application. But it was cool as hell!

flybymike wrote:I had a Whirlwind 4 bladed hydraulic constant speed prop on my T-51. I had the 912 uls-3 set up for the prop governor and it work very well. The prop and governor was about 11k, way too much money for an S7 application. But it was cool as hell!

I would love to fly/own one of those T-51's but 11K for a prop....OUCH!!! I was looking for one of those little 'emotion/smiley guys' where he slaps his head and faints!!!

Well, we decided to go with the Whirlwind on my brother's S6S and so far so good. The prop took about two weeks to be delivered, was well packaged, and all parts were included (but more on that in a minute). We also got their 11.3 inch carbon spinner which was finished very nicely and ready for paint.

As we began the install process, we realized that the included hub mounting bolts were going to be too short, since the s6 has a prop spacer and also uses nuts on the back of the prop flange instead of threaded inserts ( which also means we didn't need to use the included wave lock washers). A quick trip to town for some 5/16-18 x 4" socket head bolts and some grade 8 nylocks and we were back in business. The spinner and backing plate were painted last night, and then everything got assembled is morning.

The recommended initial blade pitch of 17 degrees was too flat, and resulted in almost redline static RPM. 19 degrees seems just about right, about 5400 static, 5500 on climbout, and close to 5800 full throttle in cruise (our field elevation is 4840').

Anyway, compared to the ground adjustable 2 blade sensenich that this prop replaced, it is much smoother. No so much mechanical vibration wise, as the sensenich was a smooth prop, but there is much less (really none) drumming from the windscreen and skylight, and it is quite a bit quieter inside and outside. We've only got a couple hours on it so far today, but so far it seems like a great prop. We need to do some more testing for cruise speed comparisons, kind of squirley air this morning.

Without the spinner or backplate this prop weighs 8 pounds, one pound lighter than the 2 blade sensenich.

Pretty excited about this prop, it's going to make the flight up to JC on Wednesday a lot more enjoyable. See you all in a few days!

Ted

Ted,
Good to hear.... The recent Kitplanes article about the WW left a little to be desired, as they compared it to a square tipped Warp, it would have been more informative if they had used the tapered tip Warp as that is proven to be better then the square tip for our type of flying. I too have started to shy away from the Kiev, though it is the best proven prop out there. But if I have to wait 3 months for a replacement blade (that only broke because of a frozen snow bank/failed brake line, which would have taken ANY blade out) that's not real practical for me.

I checked into the WW, and was all prepared to go that route, but then I went back to Warp (used them for years on other homebuilts, way before the Kiev came along) and a lot of the reason was cost. Much less dough then the WW, most importantly though another pilot in my area who, like myself, likes to play around off airport and thus may, just may, need a new blade or two more often then most, was using Warp. It occurred to us that if we both had the exact same setup we could rat hole several blades in our respective shops and be way ahead of the game time wise when we "had a need". I was hesitant, as the Kiev is just so damn good, but I am happy to report that after 10 hours of all types of flying the 72" 3 blade tapered tip Warp is a keeper, good out of the hole and in cruise. FWIW much less money then the WW and they also have quick delivery. I still really like the WW and look forward to seeing yours at JC, if money was no object I'd have two of them (6 blades....!) As of now I am ordering another Kiev blade but I don't care this time how long it takes. See ya at JC. I agree the 2 blade wood Sensinich that comes with the kit is ancient tech comapred to modern composite 3 blader's!

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What about Cato.
Are they doing any props for the 100hp Rotax?
Gary

NoCOpilot,
Sounds like a similar experience I had with WW. Except my shipment didn't include those wavy-lock washers and it took me over a month for WW to get them to me!!! If I'd known you didn't need yours I would have begged for them.
My previous prop was also mounted with through bolts and nuts, I was lost as to why WW hadn't included nuts. Since this was my first time dealing with a Rotax I didn't know how things were assembled. A call to WW told me that the prop was supposed to be mounted with threaded prop inserts. I ended up ordering new threaded prop hub inserts ($65) so I could install the prop as it was intended.
I had a taper tip Warp on the S-7 before going to the WW. As you experienced, the initial 17 degrees was too fine pitch on my plane as it easily over-reved. I have settled on 18.1 degrees and will fly it some more to see if the setting will stay at that degree.
I personally think the Warp pulled better but the WW is smoother and I no longer have that drumming in the windshield like you experienced. Performance wise the jury is still out. I don't think I have really gained anything other than a much smoother running engine. Speeds are nearly identical and I may have lost a few feet in take-off. I will say the WW is a very nice looking prop.

I just go by static rpm, as referencing degrees of pitch without where along the blade it was measured is too confusing. I have a static of 5300 rpm, which happens to be 11.5 degrees as measured at the tip end. Field elevation 5400'.

The Warp comments I made were in comparasion to Kiev, and it is so close in performance (smooth too) that it is for all purposes a wash, but with the dealer pricing I got on the Warp I saved a grand, so I could be biased I guess!

Nothing beats Warp for toughness, though the others are tough enough in normal use, the all carbon solid construction ( bit heavier of course) makes it more able to stand unintended occasional abuse perhaps.?

shortfielder wrote:What about Cato.
Are they doing any props for the 100hp Rotax?
Gary

Craig has made a 3-bladed prop designed for the 912/S, paid for I think by a guy who wants to offer them commercially. I am supposed to be the test bed for it (Craig lives about 20min from my hangar) but it seems Craigs and my schedule just never mesh. I think he's so busy buying CarbonCub props that he super busy!

NoCoPilot,
I just wanted to tell you I caught the takeoff at JC and the WW prop seemed to be right there with the Kiev as in QUIET....it sure looked good too. High praise as the Kiev is generally regarded as the quietest, good for the US makers of the Whirl Wind!

I'll ad an update on my WW. As others are saying...it is smooth and quiet. As for performance...that is still up in the air but I am not seeing much difference between it and the Warp Drive that was initially on the plane. I took a 100 trip yesterday and at 5500 I was cruising right at 100 mph, this is less than I was cruising with the Warp. WOT was pushing 108 mph. The warp cruised at this same RPM at 107ish. So basically I lost some top speed and that might be still attainable with minor prop adjustment but I am currently right on the numbers that have been relayed to me. Max throttle, flat and level is 5800.
The best thing I have found with the prop though is the less vibration that allows me to see out the windshield at cruise speeds. With the Warp Drive the vibration at cruise had the windshield having a severe vibration where it was hard to see through it clearly. Like a high speed buzzing which made it look like someone had smeared oil on it.