I am in need of a new prop for my 185F. I fly of grass mostly and am looking more for speed than anything else.
It seems the Hartzel Aluminum Voyager was/is the choice.
Is the RAF discount still in effect?
Thanks,
Tom

a3holerman wrote:I am in need of a new prop for my 185F. I fly of grass mostly and am looking more for speed than anything else.
It seems the Hartzel Aluminum Voyager was/is the choice. What concerns me is the "regular inspections that can be done a select locations" still apply?
Thanks,
Tom

See my earlier post(s). It looks like from the photo you have a short round tip McCauley or Hartzel. You may not be able to beat that. It is beautiful and climbs better but I lost a few kt or stayed about the same. My guess is the fastest recent design is the Voyager cut down to allowable 84". It is impossible to find reliable data on this matter.

Thank you for the reply,

Yes, it was a McCauley and did seem to perform well. The key work is "was", long story.

I’m close to swapping out my 86” 401 Black Mac for the Voyager. The only reason I’m looking to upgrade is a faster cruise speed, every other dynamic is absolutely fine with the Black Mac, so any increase in the other characteristics is just extra. If you look at the Hartzell site, they are claiming a 7KT increase in cruise……………. that’s a pretty bold statement. We’ll see. If I see a 5 MPH increase at my standard cruise setting than I’d be happy. I’ll report back when I get some details. A buddy of mine operates a very fast old 180 and refers to my A185F as “fat and slow”

Hopefully he’s just calling my plane fat after this.

185er wrote:I’m close to swapping out my 86” 401 Black Mac for the Voyager. The only reason I’m looking to upgrade is a faster cruise speed, every other dynamic is absolutely fine with the Black Mac, so any increase in the other characteristics is just extra. If you look at the Hartzell site, they are claiming a 7KT increase in cruise……………. that’s a pretty bold statement. We’ll see. If I see a 5 MPH increase at my standard cruise setting than I’d be happy. I’ll report back when I get some details......

Considering the usual factory hype, I hope you don't spend $20K on a Voyager, then see only a 2 mph increase.
And maybe a decrease in your other dynamics.

hotrod180 wrote:Considering the usual factory hype…

Not much hype. Hartz has been pretty humble. We are seeing big perf gains with the Voyager.

185er wrote:I’m close to swapping out my 86” 401 Black Mac for the Voyager. The only reason I’m looking to upgrade is a faster cruise speed, every other dynamic is absolutely fine with the Black Mac, so any increase in the other characteristics is just extra. If you look at the Hartzell site, they are claiming a 7KT increase in cruise……………. that’s a pretty bold statement. We’ll see. If I see a 5 MPH increase at my standard cruise setting than I’d be happy. I’ll report back when I get some details. A buddy of mine operates a very fast old 180 and refers to my A185F as “fat and slow”

Hopefully he’s just calling my plane fat after this.

Did the prop switch, flight testing before I removed the 401 and after putting the Voyager on. Speed tests were done at 8000’, temps were only 2 degrees different on the same day, I feel like the data is pretty accurate. Conducted a 4 way speed test, results as followed.

Black Mac. 2300 RPM WOT 161.75 mph
2700 RMP WOT 167.75 mph

Voyager. 2300 RPM WOT 165 mph
2700 RPM WOT 174.25 mph

I’ve always felt that the Black Mac probably did ok at a low cruise RPM, this test verified that it isn’t that much slower than the Voyager in that area. Where the Voyager really starts to shine is the top of the RPM, almost a 7 mph increase. With this data, I wish I would have done testing at 2400 and 2500, but I would imagine with a 3.25 mph gain at 2300 and a 6.5 mph gain at 2700, it’s probably slightly under a 5 mph gain at 2500. I did absolutely no time to climb testing or takeoff testing, but I will say this, there was a noticeable difference in pull off the ground. As many have stated, the Voyager pulls harder. There’s also no data for this, but it climbs better as well.

Cessna 185 IO550, Wing X, Sportsman, 4” bubble windows, 8.50 by 10 wheels and tires, Snyder speed kit