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PV 50 Prop.

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Alan Carter

Joined: 02 Jul 2012
Posts: 378
Location: Kent, England.

Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 11:53 am Post subject: PV 50 Prop.

Hi, All.

I have a Arblast  PV 50 Prop. and find in difficult to get any information on this prop.

I know other Europa,s have this prop fitted, and there is no dealer in the UK.

Servicing, all I know is to grease the jack screw.

is there anything else to check, measure or inspect.

Should one have a spare electric pitch motor, as failure would ground the plane. 

What is the tt to major overhaul,



Regards,

Alan

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pjeffers(at)talktalk.net
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Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 12:54 am Post subject: PV 50 Prop.

Hi,

Arplast is the firm that makes the PV 50 prop.  They are French and are not

good at communicating with non French speakers.  To my knowledge there is no

MM or life recommendations. 

I have operated a PV50 for about 1500hrs now over a period of about 15 years

and can report the following problems I have had or come across during that

period.

1  Using the original manual in flight pitch controller (yours maybe this

type or either a Smart controller or Arplast electronic auto controller)

The former suffers from re-chargeable battery pack failure resulting in

failure to run fine. The other two seem to work OK but if used in auto all

the time will b----ger the pitch change motor in about 200 to 300 hrs. When

used in auto only for take off and landing the motor will have a

considerably longer life.

Having a spare motor is a good idea as they are usually on 6 week lead time

from France. They also cost much money, £200 at last purchase. (It is

possible to manually adjust the prop to a compromise pitch if you get stuck

with the pitch change inoperative.

2  The prop hub suffers from moisture corrosion which manifests itself as

corrosion of the blade pitch change bearings.

I dismantle clean and re lubricate the hub on an annual basis to help

alleviate this problem. I use a water proof grease for this purpose.  Best

to obtain from marine outlets and normally recommended for submersible

components of boat prop shafts. If the bearings do get corroded they will

need replacement. The bearings are standard and easily obtained but fitting

them is a different matter all together, as a jig is required to refit the

pitch drive dogs.

3  The crappy little pitch limit switches sometimes fall apart. They can be

obtained from Maplin.

4  There is one AD issued by the LAA re fine pitch limit stop.  Without this

mod and with certain electrical failures the prop can run to zero pitch in

flight.  Not good.  Re this last mod I have come across at least one

instance where the mod has been removed by Arplast during their overhauling

process.

5  Being as no special protection is provided for L/E's of the blades they

can become quite badly damaged by stones.  Limited repair work can be

achieved by the use of ARALDITE RAPID ie the ordinary stuff you can buy for

domestic purposes  (NOT ARALDITE 320 the Blue Stuff supplied by Europa

Aircraft).

Apart from the above the prop works quite well for the price. It is also the

lightest VP on the market hence a bit fragile. I have come across one

cracked hub caused probably by prop strike that did not even brake a blade.



Pete Jeffers LAA Insp. Rep

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Alan Carter

Joined: 02 Jul 2012
Posts: 378
Location: Kent, England.

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 3:29 am Post subject: Re: PV 50 Prop.

Hi Peter.

Many thanks for posting such a comprehensive detail on the PV 50.

As you know I an not a builder, but I find the PV 50 a nice looking prop and seems to work fine.

Problem as you said ,difficult to communicate with, ( If they where based near Calais I could understand why.)

I have the Smart controller, it needs a software update so to incorporate the new Take Off mode, done free of charge. just pay Â£10 postage.

I like the idea of marine grease, sorry to have to ask, But what do I look for to check if my stop has this mod,

And if possible a run through on how to remove and grease the hub, would be most useful to me and probably other PV 50 users.



Regards

Alan

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Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:

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