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I was looking though my logbooks today and came across something I missed before. Apparently my plane has a climb prop on it. Specifically a McCauley 1A101 pitched to 46". It was overhauled in June of 2002, and currently has about 200 hours on it. Since I rarely climb above 4500 feet I don't see the real need for a climb prop and I could certainly benefit from the added speed of the cruise prop. My questions are, what are the costs associated with changing to a cruise prop and what is the likelihood of not losing a huge amount of cash on the change by selling my existing prop? Thanks guys.

Don't be too quick to ditch that climb prop. One of the 150/152s marginal areas is it's climb performance. My prop is pitched to 48, I wouldn't want to go any flatter than that.
A new prop will cost $2,500 to $3000 depending on make, you may also need a new spinner and bolts, tax too
Sale price of your old prop is dependant on age, condition, finding the guy who needs it etc!

Regards,

Joe 150F

As Joe has already noted, you may not realize it, but you probably will not want to go beyond a 6948 pitch on your prop. In any case, the prop can be repitched for about $200 at a prop shop. If it has not had an overhaul in recent history or is in poor condition, an overhaul will run about $400 plus some additional for the repitch.

Charles

Charles, as usual, gives the best advice here. Since you already have a recently overhauled prop, you might as well keep it. The two most common pitches are 48 and 50 for the 1A101/DCM69XX prop. All depends on your type to flying to which pitch you go. The more you tend towards the speed of a cruise prop, there is a sacrifice of greater take-off distance and loss of climb rate. But, I am sure you were already aware of that.

Just out of curiosity, I am in the process now of putting another prop on our airplane. I was considering having a prop configured to the 46 pitch for better short field performance. Up to now I was convinced by others that would be too flat. But now that I have somebody with experience with this prop, could you provide us with some numbers? Like static, climb and cruise RPM? And also what type of level cruise airspeed do you see now?

Thanks bunches,

I perform very well short field, my takeoff roll is very short. On climb out I usually hold 75 knots and pull around 2500RPM. At cruise I use between 2350 and 2400 cruise and get around 95 knots according to my GPS. I rarely take a passenger unless it's my CFII and I'm also a pretty small guy. Instead of getting a whole new prop I'm going to see about getting it repitched at the end of the month when my annual comes up. Thanks guys.

Geez Jeff, seems like you have best of both worlds NOW. I'd sure think hard about it before doing a re-pitch. You stand a good chance of being less than satisfied and be out the price of the prop work to boot...just my 2 cents. Good luck <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

No doubt Jeff, I usually only get 85-90 kts cruise at 2450-2500 rpm. Right now in the winter I am getting 95 kts but that is it. I would think twice also. Especially if you are getting good short field performance.

If my bird delivered numbers like this I wouldn't change a thing! Fly and enjoy

Joe 150F

Now you got me to thinking about going back to my original thoughts of maybe switching to a 46 pitch prop..................HMMMMMM

Keep in mind Bill he said GPS said he had 95 knots. That's ground speed not airspeed and without knowing the conditions that number does not answer your question.

But if he'll post back what his airspeed says it'll help out in your quest, plus some distance measurements for his takeoffs.