Noob Question - CEM and Prop

[AdamB]

Originally Posted by louisv

Think you are drving a bicycle, propeller pitch is like your speeds on a bike...

If you are climbing, go to easy speed...fine pitch

If you are going straight and level, you will gain speed by going to harder speeds...coarse pitch.

There are 3 types of props (and the 2 pitch on the hurricane), fixed, variable and CSP (constant speed prop). The CSP automatically keeps the same RPM all the time, so its like an automatic transmission, no need to change it as often (ex: spit IIa)...generally not during a digfight. With the variable (non-CSP), there is more work to do (ex: Bf-109)

Basically a higher prop pitch increases the displacement of the air in front of the propellor towards that rear of the prop. It does this by spinning through the air at a greater angle (in relation to the prop and the direction of the air flowing through the prop) However increasing the prop pitch cause more drag because more airflow will be rebounding off the trailing edge of the prop thus you should only use a high prop pitch when ascending because youll have a lower airspeed so you need more pulling force from the prop to maintain the climb and because of the lower speeds the effect of drag is limited because the force of the air hitting the greater surface area of the prop is less because of thhe lack of speed. >>> the opposite occurs when decending.

Hope this answers it for you, im not sure this is a gr8 explination but then again us physics lot are never good at explaining. Just take my word.

Adam