Pitching a Rans S6

Rans S-6 ZK-LDB (Rangiora)

I helped a Rans S-6 owner to adjust the propeller pitch on his microlight.  It was not going very fast in cruise mode, yet it would take off quite quickly. He figured something was not quite right.

He desperately wanted some more speed before he convoyed long distance to Rangiora with a Tecnam ‘Eaglet’ and my Skyleader ‘GP One’, both of which cruised easily at 100 knots.

We checked the blade pitch using a bubble protractor and found up to 1/2 degree difference between blades. Then we carefully adjusted it to have one degree more pitch. The result was pleasing – an increase of over 5 knots in cruise airspeed (now 85 knots at 5000rpm revs), but only a small decrease in take-off/climb performance.