Prop won't shift to cruise pitch

[John Lawton]

Greetings Team,

Susan and I were out and about in our Ximango yesterday. We stopped for lunch at Rome, GA. After we departed and climbed out I went to switch to cruise pitch and my prop wouldn't change. I tried several times, but it stayed in climb pitch. The resistance on the lever felt different when I went to change pitch. I even shut down the engine, feathered the prop, then switched back to climb pitch, restarted and tried again thinking it might "reset" itself, but no joy.

We got back to TN89 just before dark and I haven't had a chance to look at it yet. Has anyone else ever experienced this? If so, what's the cause and the cure?

Regards,

John Lawton
Whitwell, TN (TN89)
Ximango #135

[Holliday Obrecht]

Hi John and Susan,

I have had problems shifting my prop. in the past when I forgot to set the right engine rpm for shifting from climb to cruise. Did you use 3800 rpm? Was your airspeed around 60 kts, and did you pull back very slowly on the lever? Sometimes my ship is sensitve to these things before the prop. will shift.

Best regards,
Holliday SN 130

PS. I missed you guys on a trip up here late this past summer. Did you come up?

[John Lawton]

Sometimes my ship is sensitve to these things before the prop. will shift.

Hey Holliday,

Yeah, I tried those things. The resistance on the lever felt completely different on Sunday. No give at all. Mine usually has some resistance as you start to pull back on the shift lever, but then gives a bit and you hear the prop change RPM. In this incidence there was stiff resistance to the lever being pulled back at all.

It's time for an oil change and I'm planning to look it over when I have the cowls off. It feathers as normal with the engine shut down. It was getting near sunset on our flight home on Sunday, so I was more interested in getting home with enough daylight to land, rather than continuing to fiddle with it. I'll probably go fly and try again after I do my oil change and see what happens. Hopefully, it was something I was doing wrong. Maybe it will turn out to be something silly like I was going too fast or something.

We didn't make it up to the Shenandoah Valley like we thought we would. I still want to make it up there, though. I also want to do a trip out west, maybe next summer? It rained here most of September and we're absolutely slammed in the shop now and for the foreseeable future. Even if the weather had cooperated it would have been tough for me to break away. No rest for the weary....

All the best to you, Shelly and Wolfie.

Regards,

John Lawton
Whitwell, TN (TN89)
Ximango #135

[faselh]

John,
what did you find out? I also had the same problem occasionally.

Hermann

[John Lawton]

Hey Hermann,

Nothing yet. The weather has been total crap here on the days I've been able to fly. The days the sun has shined it's been blowing stink. My weather station recorded a 47 mph gust a couple of days ago when that last storm went by. I should have flown yesterday. The ridge was on, but we're trying to finish up a ASW-27 glider we're doing a refinish on and push it out the door before the holidays. As such, I needed to work yesterday.


I'll post my findings when I'm able to fly. I did look at the prop and linkage a week or so ago and I don't see anything that is obviously wrong with it. I'm hoping it's something stupid, like me going to fast. We flew several hours that day and made several stops. It was working fine up until the last leg.

Looks like things are going to warm up and simmer down a bit next week. I haven't been able to fly in about 3 weeks and I'm starting to get a bit cranky.....

Regards,

John Lawton
Whitwell, TN (TN89)
Ximango #135

[John Lawton]

Hey Guys,

Finally had a chance to fly and check the operation of my prop. All seems normal now. I was able to shift from climb to cruise and back to climb with no hesitation whatsoever. Must have been gremlins.....

Regards,

John Lawton
Whitwell, TN (TN89)
Ximango #135