Variable Pitch MT Propeller

 Does anyone have a controlable MT prop and can tell me if they like it.

I use a double cup glass holder (for holding large pieces of glass) to
pull the wings out for folding. It works great- except the time it
let go and I hit the ground with the wing on top of me. NO damage to
the plane and a little to my dorsal fin.

So, I made a simple stand with carpeted top that fits under the wing
before I pull it out. IF the cups let go, the wing just sits on the
stand. This is also good when the wing sticks part way out. I can
walk up to the root and give it a little help.

With this, I am able to safely fold the wings myself in less than 10
minutes. I cut the dolly down so that the tail is low enough to fit
under my Helio Courier wing in the hanger.

ONe plane for eating gas and one for saving it.

Does anyone have a working used horizon- electric?

There is a guy in Oxford in the UK that could sort you out with a Ex
RAF Ferranti Horizon with an invertor for around 250.00 GBP's. If you
are interested drop me aline and I'll give you his number. He is
curently making a new one for our Taifun.

Regards

Birty

sounds good. Is it certified? Is your plane a certified one?? Mine is.

From: "birtrum" <birtrum@IwT6E1PpDkkoA5r6phxTox-NWCteExnxjG5SHzZ3kGPOFVpI2a-XSVcVhtPP8QQ0Kn6mCcx18y2Z8CU.yahoo.invalid>
Reply-To: Taifun17E@yahoogroups.com
To: Taifun17E@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Taifun17E] Re: I joined!!!
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2006 08:35:54 -0000

There is a guy in Oxford in the UK that could sort you out with a Ex
RAF Ferranti Horizon with an invertor for around 250.00 GBP's. If you
are interested drop me aline and I'll give you his number. He is
curently making a new one for our Taifun.

Regards

Birty

Greetings,

I have owned a Taifun with MT-Propeller for about 2-1/2 years and think
it highly over-rated. My prop takes one full minute to go to feather (or
un-feather to high rpm) which is rather annoying when coming out of a
thermal. Consider that when leaving a thermal if you have entered strong
sink, you had better have stayed in the thermal for long enough to
overcome the loss in altitude when you leave as you hold the toggle
switch up and impatiently wait till you have sufficient pitch to start
the engine. I have flown with a friend in his Taifun with a Hoffman
propeller and the transition to/from feather is virtually instantaneous
which seems to me more advantageous.

However, the slow response of the MT-Propeller is minor compared to the
problems of maintenance or repair. There are a number of variations of
the MT-propeller. Mine is an MTV-1-A/L 160-03 with a BAUER Elektronik
Control Unit P-120M. It is a variable speed unit. There is also a
constant speed model which has a Hall-effect sensor and a different
hook-up under the spinner. If you are lucky your prop is hooked up the
way the MT Manual says it is supposed to be connected. I was unlucky and
the aircraft factory had apparently taken many liberties installing the
prop that was at variance with the MT Manual. Instead of a circuit
breaker I got a sub-miniature fuse holder whose itty-bitty spring leaps
out and loses itself in the carpeting when a fuse must be extracted
which isn't too easy(the spring has since been glued to the fuse holder
cap). The factory also inelegantly hacked a hole in the instrument panel
to mount the control unit so that only one screw would hold it in the
panel. Two years ago I had a ground-loop incident (don't ask!) that
broke the prop and it had to be repaired. Well, whether one sends it
through American Propeller in Redding, CA as I did, or through
MT-Propeller USA in Florida, in the process of repair they will hook it
up according to the MT Manual. When my prop came back and was
re-installed it would not work - DEAD - inoperative. I had to engage the
services of a not inexpensive but very competent MT expert to discover,
in several visits, that the aircraft wiring did not match the MT-Prop
wiring.

This is probably more than you ever wanted to know. I haven't done much
soaring with my Taifun but when it is working it flies beautifully. Hope
you have good luck with yours.

Dick D.