Lloyd sez:
>...is it possible the fellow in Colorado had his prop set for max
>climb at take off and reached max rev quickly after takeoff and then
>attempted to adjust the prop and went the wrong way, possibly
>flattening it out even more causing the aircraft to brake in air
>which might explain the pancake landing observed, and at that point
>did not have enough time or altitude to recover?
I can speak only for the Ivo medium prop on my Model IV. As long as
the engine is developing takeoff power you cannot flatten the pitch
enough to produce engine braking (unless, perhaps, you were pointed
nearly straight down). Braking happens when you have the prop in a
flat pitch and pull the throttle back, and can be quite significant.
In the scenario you describe, I'd expect that flattening the prop
further would just cause the RPM to go up, possibly beyond red line,
which would not reduce thrust (unless the engine suddenly became very
unhappy with you).
Mike G.
N728KF, Kitfox IV-1200 Speedster
Phoenix, AZ
