Steppin Up O.S.
I have a plane on which I'm flying an OS 61. For the longest time, I was going with the old school, "11x7 is the prop for a 61". That was fine one my pattern birds, and when I didn't know any better, but when I put it on a prop jet, say, an F18, I noticed a severe drop in performance. The plane struggled to get off the ground, and the only way to get any noticeable speed out of it was to "struggle" it up to the stratosphere and dive it. That was with a stock muffler. Then a friend of mine gave me a pipe. Ok, so the pipe was for a 95AX, but it did help just a little. Or maybe that was just suggested in my mind, lol. Then, someone said that maybe I was under propped, and suggested a 12X10. I tried a 12x10, and noticed a significant increase in performance. Now it wasn't super fast, but it was at least acceptable for me. It didn't struggle on takeoff like before, and I could get some pretty fast passes on straightaways, and when diving, JEEEEZ!
Now keep in mind, this prop jet sits pretty low, so my prop length options are limited.
Well whaddya know, I lucked up on an O.S. 95AX. Great. So here I have an engine now that my pipe is made for. When looking at the specs, the smallest prop is a 13x8, so I figure a 12x10 wouldn't be much different. However, other guys at my field (and in forums) are running 12x7/12x8's on the 95AXs, and they say a 12x10 is too much pitch. I'm thinking, if the 61 is swingin it without any apparent problems, a 95 should swing it ok as well.
So my question is, am I looking the right direction? Just go ahead with the 12x10 on the 95? Yes, I know the obvious answer is "try it out, see what happens." But I want to know I'm at least thinking right. I really don't want to go with a bigger prop because of ground clearance. One might say to not worry about it if you land/takeoff right, but we all know real life doesn't work that way. The biggest thing is that I have a few 12x10s already, and I don't want to waste money or more importantly, time on new prop(s) if they're not really correct or going to work better. And I'm concerned about the lighter pitch being harder on the engine.
Anyone with experience on this?