another cracked spinner

[hharney]

Robert
Do you have a lot of noticeable vibration? Or maybe you haven't had a chance to compare with another Skymaster. Sure seems odd that you would be cracking those critters all the time. I still have my originals but didn't realize they were so expensive. Not sure I want to sell them, but also not sure why I am keeping them either.

I know my MT's have smoothed out my bird but I never had cracked the original spinners in the 25 or 30 years we had them. Doesn't Aviation Enterprises have some composite spinners that will retro the originals?

[rmorris]

I do not notice any unusual vibration, but you are right that I don't have another Skymaster to compare against.

I am pretty convinced that I need to balance or replace the prop, and was literally near top of my sun n fun shopping list...to likely get the MT props. I say top because I am thinking I might upgrade the engines in the BumbleBee or build a twin velocity...want to go faster. So when I evaluate the 3-bladed MT props, I will need to understand (with that big of cost) whether they will work on a bigger engine in the T337C, or just the TSIO360s.

as for composites from Owen? He has to reply to one of the 2 emails I've sent since last Thursday....neither he or Don have made a peep.

I paid $600 for the front pair of spinner and backplate from a salvage yard in FL on ebay last year. but so far am having a tougher time. Given my desire to potentially upgrade soon, don't want to sink too much into it...just want to get it off the ground so I can fly to sun n fun and shop

[hharney]

The 3 blade MT's will slow you down a tad, maybe two or three knots. The MT's are STC'd for the 337 only, it's really not by engine but they are made for the Cont. 360. Not saying that they won't be the same for another STC but there are no other STC's that MT has that fit Skymaster.

The only choice on engine is the Aviation Enterprises STC for the Cont 550. And I'm not for sure that is a completed STC, I think it is. One good thing about AE mod with the 550 is you can do one engine at a time. But that's the only STC, unless you are thinking field approval. The old Riley STC for the 520's is sold and owned by someone else and they are not doing anything with it.

Even with the bigger engine the cruise speed really a huge increase for the extra fuel you will burn. You have to get real high, like the Super Skyrockets do, to really take advantage of the extra HP without filling the tanks every 3 hours. That Skymaster airframe is only going to go so fast. It's really not very clean.

You need speed, you better look elsewhere. I see these guys around me with their Bonanza's and it make me so mad that they can blow the doors off my push pull and burn 1/3 less fuel. Then there's the guys with the RV-10's and that is one performing machine. Climbs like a maniac and cruises 170 kt burning 12 gals. I'm doing 155 kts burning 20 gals. Oh well a nice Bo or the 10 is $150k - $200k and I can buy a lot of gas for those dollars

You need to just call Don, he not real good on the keyboards. Not sure if Owen is still at the AE shop but call Chris his son.