Prop selection

Has anyone out there replaced a fixed pitch Sensenich with a fixed pitch Catto?
Just curious to hear if there was a noticeable improvement in performance?

I would look into the sensenich ground adjustable. I've put one on my RV 7a and it's incredible

I agree. The Sensenich GA prop is great. I did a comparison between that and the Catto, but didn't compare the Sensenich metal prop in the comparison.

Same result; took a Sensenich Aluminum fixed pitch off the wife's O-320 powered RV-4, Installed the Sensenich ground adjustable carbon fiber prop, set to pitch position 5. she attained 190 TAS@ 2700 RPM 4 MPH faster than the previous prop, and she climbed out of the airport @ 2000 FPM which out climbed the previous prop. so although the numbers might not be cast in stone, they are a direct comparison on one airframe, engine & instrument set. Other planes may be faster, or more effort spent on documenting performance.
Marilyn is pleased.
I have a CATTO on my RV-8, which I am also very happy with. You need to work with Craig to nail down your engine power & Flying style/expectations, so he can build your prop. He met my goals.

One caveat is the ground adjustable Sensenich is only applicable to the O-320 engines, not the O-360. It's a fantastic prop that lets you dial in the optimum pitch for your engine and airframe. I really like mine.

Not just for 320's

I've been running the Sensenich ground adjustable prop on my 220 HP IO-360 7-A and it has has worked wonderfully . I've tried all the pins from climb through cruise. Amazing numbers .

It's so easy to adjust that you can "cruise" cross country ,spend 20-30 minutes to change pitch and your ready for back country strips.

The low inertia of this prop makes it a great choice for formation as well, I was part of the 50 ship over Phoenix raceway last month and it worked so much better than my old metal prop which was hard to slow down quickly ( the drawback to fixed pitch in formation flying)

This week I'm flying the LA County Airshow with it in the fifth spot( big moves on the outside) the acceleration and deceleration of this prop is great.

It looks sexy as **** and I've been told that it sounds pretty cool

If you elect to select the Sensenich GA prop be aware that LSA's which are using this prop with the 100HP Continental O-200D engines are having problems due to the stiffness of the carbon fiber blades.

Mags aren't making 50 hours and there is concern about internal damage due to harmonics. One LSA manufacturer is working with Catto to replace the props in the field.

I know this is not on a Lycoming but the issues could be the same. Make sure to ask Sensenich about this before writing that check.

o360?

I looked on Sensenich web site and I dont see any ground adjustibles for anything larger than o 320's. Probably 7/16 bolt size max and not for o 360 or IO 360 engines.

N941WR said:

If you elect to select the Sensenich GA prop be aware that LSA's which are using this prop with the 100HP Continental O-200D engines are having problems due to the stiffness of the carbon fiber blades.

Mags aren't making 50 hours and there is concern about internal damage due to harmonics. One LSA manufacturer is working with Catto to replace the props in the field.

I know this is not on a Lycoming but the issues could be the same. Make sure to ask Sensenich about this before writing that check.

Click to expand...

And a root cause of this is that the Continental engines are missing a vital design feature that Lycomings have.... a flywheel! The GA prop for the Continental is both too light and too stiff for an engine without a flywheel. The Sensenich GA prop for the O-320 also has completely different blade and hub designs too, plus it was sent thru vibration analysis testing before being released to the market.

No such problems have been showing up with this prop on the Lycs and there are plenty of them deployed in the fleet now, nor are any showing up with the similar Whirlwhind GA carbon fiber prop either. Problems are indeed happening to the Cont O-200, especially with Bendix mags but curiously enough, not necessarily happening on most O-200A with Slick mags.

I've been running this prop since last July and it's remarkably smooth... I also have the Landoll inertia ring on my flywheel which makes things even smoother. It's so smooth, that a couple weeks ago, I thought I felt a strange new slight vibration on my plane so I pulled the cowl off to have a look, and sure enough, one of my exhaust pipe hangars (rubber tubing) was beginning to fail and cause the cabin heat muff to rub the lower cowl and vibrate against the fiberglass. I would have never felt that with my old Aymar-Demuth wood prop.

N269SD said:

I've been running the Sensenich ground adjustable prop on my 220 HP IO-360 7-A and it has has worked wonderfully . I've tried all the pins from climb through cruise. Amazing numbers .

Click to expand...

Is this the 320 prop on your IO-360? Using 7/16" lugs on a custom spacer to mate to the 360 crank flange I presume?

If so, have you told Sensenich what you're running it on?

I'd imagine the 220hp IO-360 is probably beating the holy snot out of the blades. Yeah I know experimental and all that.... but when I spoke with Sensenich at Osh last year, they said they were working on a new version of the carbon fiber GA prop specifically for the 360 engines because the design for the 320 failed vibration analysis testing when run on a 360 engine.

Yes Neal They know about it. I've been testing it for them on the 360. I think they have a winner

Sean

Neal@F14 said:

And a root cause of this is that the Continental engines are missing a vital design feature that Lycomings have.... a flywheel! The GA prop for the Continental is both too light and too stiff for an engine without a flywheel. The Sensenich GA prop for the O-320 also has completely different blade and hub designs too, plus it was sent thru vibration analysis testing before being released to the market.

...

Click to expand...

The point is, this engine only has problems with this prop. All other props are fine. Also, the OP has a 360, which isn't approved for this prop at this time but it sounds like that is about to change.

prop

Wow... it's great to get all the input on this subject! That Sensenich GA prop sounds like a good compromise to spending $10,000+ on a C/S conversion and all the front end weight that adds!

Great news for those who want a GAP:

You heard it here first!!!