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Acceptable Propellor Nick Size


John Vance

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The neuform manual has this information. You need to read the manual for your prop.

Since I am not certain of your prop model, and I need pictures, I will not comment at this time on airworthiness. For the model I am familiar with, as long as only the gelcoat is damaged, it's fine.

Neuform manuals: http://www.neuform-propellers.com/en/propellers/service-and-consultation/downloads

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Here are photos. It's a little smaller than I thought, about 3/16" diameter (I was feeling around in low light when first discovered it). To my untrained eye, this looks like gel coat. The white appears to be the gel coat from the front face of the prop. The first photo is the rear face of the prop, and the second is looking at the trailing edge. 

image.jpeg

image.jpeg

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If the fabric is undamaged, the prop is good.

A prop is one of the "red zones" of composites. Any damage at all to the composite is cause for rejection of the part unless the manufacturer says otherwise.

You can get the resin from flight design/neuform to fill that in if it's all good.

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I had a similar chip in the leading edge, through the plastic edge protector and down to the fibers but with no damage to them.  I filled it in with JB Weld and smoothed in to the contours of the prop with 400 grit sandpaper.  I shot some semi-gloss Rustoleum on it to color match, and you literally can't tell which blade was repaired, even if you look closely.  It has run like this for over 250 hours.  I inspect it regularly but it's never had any issues.

This is the repair method Warp Drive recommends for their all carbon fiber props.  Neuform will tell you to send the entire prop to them, so they can not only repair the damaged blade, but recheck the whole thing for balance.  This will cost $1000 or more plus bidirectional shipping.

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Thanks everyone for your responses. I'm convinced that the damage is limited to the gelcoat. I don't see anything that looks like woven material or broken fibers. The white area shown in the photo all lies within 1/16" of the trailing edge, and actually extends all the way TO the trailing edge.  It's hard to believe Neuform would put structural fabric at the very surface. Also, the depth corresponds to the black/white gelcoat interface at the trailing edge, so I think it's the white gelcoat showing.  If I repair the damage, I'm wondering what happens if I send the prop in for inspection/overhaul at some point. Are they going to tell me that I have an obvious repair of damage that is now not inspectable, and therefore I have a non-airworthy blade?  Other than cosmetics, is there a reason to repair?

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1 hour ago, Tom Baker said:

I only said because of simple epoxy and JB Weld being mentioned in the thread.

I used JB Weld because that is what the Warp Drive factory recommends, and at the time as far as I knew there was no similar procedure for Neurform for cosmetic repair.  In fact, the EAA has a video called "composite prop repair" showing exactly this:

http://www.eaavideo.org/detail/video/2111048001/composite-propeller-repair?autoStart=true&page=2&q=propeller

I didn't just come up with this on my own as some kind of hillbilly, half-assed repair idea.   ;)

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2 hours ago, FlyingMonkey said:

I used JB Weld because that is what the Warp Drive factory recommends, and at the time as far as I knew there was no similar procedure for Neurform for cosmetic repair.  In fact, the EAA has a video called "composite prop repair" showing exactly this:

http://www.eaavideo.org/detail/video/2111048001/composite-propeller-repair?autoStart=true&page=2&q=propeller

I didn't just come up with this on my own as some kind of hillbilly, half-assed repair idea.   ;)

Andy, I wasn't implying that yours repair was half assed. The thought I was trying to put across was, if he follows the Neuform manual for his repair he should have no worries about them rejecting the blade at a later date because of the repair.

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1 hour ago, Tom Baker said:

Andy, I wasn't implying that yours repair was half assed. The thought I was trying to put across was, if he follows the Neuform manual for his repair he should have no worries about them rejecting the blade at a later date because of the repair.

I didn't think you were implying my repair was substandard, only that you thought maybe the use of JB Weld might be a little sketchy.  So I wanted to make clear that that product is used by some manufacturers as their standard for repairs.  Of course, that only applies, as the video says, to nicks 1/8" deep or less. 

 

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