2 Apr 07        10 Hours        Total: 1448

The prop finally arrived.  Via pickup.  We temporarily installed the prop and spinner so as to fit the cowling.  Once that is done, we'll remove the prop to make life in the small garage happier.

The prop is the MT 3 blade with composite spinner.  The spinner is silver plated and the clear coated so it looks like polished metal but is very light weight.

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Phillip from MT Propellers USA delivered the prop via pickup truck from Deland, FL.  He said a trash can is perfect for supporting a prop so that's where is went.  The right photo shows the color selection.  It's painted with Imron 5.0 which is a single stage paint.  Both colors are metallic.  The blade is charcoal effect and the tips are ruby red effect.  The charcoal is darker than I expected, but it's tough to tell that from a small paper paint chip selection book.

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Overall, the prop and spinner look good.

Here it is mounted on the plane.  I think it's going to be a nice looking prop.  Doug Turner at MT Props groaned when I asked him to not put on the pastel green MT decals on the blades, but as you can see, he accommodated me.  The green MT decal would not have looked good stuck on the blades.

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Left is another shot of the prop and to the right is a shot of Nelson as we began covering the blades to protect them.  The High-Glo spinner looks very nice and everyone who's seen it thought it was metal.

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26 April 07        1 Hour        Total: 1505

Fitted adel clamps to the heat muff duct and purge hose and heater control cable.

The prop bolts needed to be torqued but I didn't have a crows foot wrench, so I trundled on down to Sears and bought a set - I needed them anyway.  I also needed a torque wrench capable of foot pounds, so I got that, too.  Notice in the photo that the crows foot wrench needs to be 90 degrees to the torque wrench - otherwise you have to do some metal gymnastics to adjust for extra length of the wrench if it's attached directly in line with the torque wrench.  If you want to do the calculations, you can find them in AC 43-13.  The bolts need to be cross torqued gradually to 64 ft-lbs. Prop07.JPG (544191 bytes) Prop08.JPG (542993 bytes)