I flew my B-25 three more times today. If you recall, I had been flying it with Master Airscrew 12 x 6 3-blade props. They seemed to work well enough, but not as well as did the APC 13 x 6 2-blade props we had been using during development/testing. So today I tried Master Airscrew 12 x 8 3-blade props. My initial impression was that they were the same or not quite as good. On the ground I tacked the engines with the tachometer in my 9ZAP and they were running around 8,400 - 8,600 (with the 12 x 6s they were turning around 10,000rpm which I believe is a little fast for the .70 four-strokes). In the air the plane didn't seem to accelerate or fly as fast as I thought it would. But I put in two flights on those 12 x 8 props and all was well. I did several full-throttle low-level (10') passes and that thing really rocks! Then I put the 12 x 6's back on and I could tell immediately, that between the two, the 12 x 8s were the way to go. It definitely wasn't as fast with the 12 x 6's. So I landed after just a short flight and re mounted the 12 x 8's and, so far, they are the way to go. The next thing I am going to do is buy some Graupner 12 x 8's and try them. They may be more efficient at the relatively lower RPMs that a 4-stroke turns--and they are colored gray and have a more classic appearance than the Master Airscrews, so they will probably look better on the B-25.

I gotta go put the meat on the grill now so I'll write more later.

Tim