Variable Inflight Pitch Propellor

... please ask Howie or Nick for details and get your order in quick.

Contact (02) 6686 8658

al@spot.com.au

If you would like further details, please email us at al@spot.com.au  

Dealer enquiries are most welcome. LightWing's In-flight Adjustable Prop made its first appearance at Natfly 2006. We developed the design and machined the components in the first half of this year and it flew to the Annual Fly-In at Narromine this Easter.

The VIP Variable Pitch Propellor ~ Australian LightWing

The start of the LightWing VIP In-flight adjustable prop story began in the mid nineties when an association was established with a New Zealand company, which utilized the Canadian timber GSC blades and a machined pitch change mechanism to produce a variable in-flight pitch propeller.

The proprietor of the company, a Mr. B Waters, insisted on using an electric pitch change which required the fitment of a large comutator and associated brushes and electrical gear to operate and electrical motor to change the pitch. On numerous occasions we tried to convince Mr. Waters that this was a grossly over complicated method of achieving a very simple result, particularly where a hollow prop shaft was available (as is the case with all Rotax motors) and we tried to coax Mr. Waters into coming up with a mechanical pitch adjustment. This was to no avail and he stayed with the electric pitch change mechanism.

However, also during this time LightWing produced its beautiful signature series hand carved timber propellers with alternate laminates of Queensland maple and clear grade hoop pine. These props looked absolutely magnificent, however, they were at best, a compromise between the optimum cruise and climb performance when fitted to the Rotax series of engines.

The desire to have an in-flight pitch change mechanism was put on hold until we exported a GR floatplane to Vanuatu in the late nineties. In this case a GSC in-flight Variable in-flight pitch prop was fitted with its associated mechanical actuation and its increase in performance with floats fitted to the GR defiantly proved the need for this type of propeller as the float plane was large and heavy and needed the fines pitch particularly for water take offs. And in the hot climate of Vanuatu, this prop was absolutely essential to maximize the performance from the Rotax 80 hp engine. However, the GSC prop using GSC blades always threw doubts into our minds as to its strength and longevity as these blades had been known to fail in flight and with catastrophic results.

It wasn’t until 2006 that the real need for an in-flight adjustable prop became apparent with the launching on the new Speed range of low wing high/medium speed aircraft. The Rotax 100 hp ULS engine though adequate for the job would only produce a maximum speed of about 105 knots whereas we set the target of 150 knots or two nautical miles a minute as our target. So once again the search for a suitable in-flight adjustable pitch prop was on again and once again we found that only the complex electrically controlled props where available from NZ with one or two also being available from America and it was one of these American props who name we will not repeat for reasons that will become obvious that we settled on.

With the hub of a borrowed US made sitting on Howie's desk, we looked long and hard at this seemingly elegant piece of equipment but a couple of aspects of its design stood out rather unpleasantly. The first was a small groove machined around the root of the clamping mechanism where the thrust bearing retains the blades and so after a few phone calls it was found that yes, this system had failed once again with catastrophic results and that an A.D. was in force requiring these blades and the hub retention system to be returned to the US factory.

There was a phone number on a sticker on one of these blades however after repeated calls to this number, no answer was obtained and a brief search revealed that the company that manufactured the pitch change mechanism and the hub had gone into receivership..

Bearing in mind that this was one of the larger and better known prop manufacturers in the US this suggests to Howie Hughes that this was an opportunity for an entrepreneurial fella like himself and thus the VIP prop was born.

We designed the hub, carried out testing in the air and on very sophisticated Computer software and then manufactured the first prop in late 2004. No sooner had we fitted the prop to the aircraft and it was flown straight to Narromine in 2005 where the prop performed faultlessly for the entire trip. Testing has continued and the rest is history.

Our VIP prop is now available for fitting to Rotax 912-ULS and 914 engines and Rotamax 1 and 2 cyl rotary engines and we welcome your enquiry, dealer enquiries are also most welcome.