Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

1 Answers

Propellers

Asked by: 4098 views Private Pilot

Hi 

Some questions RE the CSU, preferably in a Cessna 172RG

1. How/can a pilot select a setting, ie: MAP, RPM, etc., that will provide the angle of attack which produces the best thrust/torque propeller ratio in a similar way to how an IAS is designated for the best lift/drag ratio, eg: the POH's performance charts?

2. Once the aircraft levels out in cruise, & a particular RPM is set, under what conditions (eg: climb, descent, other?) would the TAS increase or decrease significantly (thereby changing blade angle), for the purposes of proving to the textbook student that the prop's most efficient angle of attack is preserved?

3. From it's very definition, Constant Speed Unit, can you please confirm that it's the prop RPM & not engine RPM that's been maintained?

Sorry if the questions we're too confusing.

Cheers

Ben

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

1 Answers



  1. Bob Watson on Feb 05, 2014

    I’m not sure I completely understand the nature of questions 1 & 2, but it seems to me that with max thrust, you’d have max speed in level flight or max rate-of-climb in non-level flight (all other things being equal). Unless I’m missing something, you’d look for those numbers in the POH.

    Re: 3, if the propeller is bolted to the engine’s crankshaft, how could the engine RPM be different from the Propeller RPM? I suppose if there’s a reduction gearbox, but then the two speeds are still linearly proportional. I don’t know of any viscous gearboxes on a plane where the two RPMs would be different. Maybe in a turboprop engine, you might have a case where the engine RPM could be non-linearly proportional to the prop RPM. In any case, the prop governor changes the propeller’s blade angle to vary the load on the engine in order to maintain a constant RPM. So, while it directly varies the propeller RPM, the fact that the propeller is mechanically coupled (bolted) to the engine (in most piston engine installations) means it also varies the engine RPM.

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.