Well I am the odd ball. But not totally alone because I know that Minnflyer does the same that I do. I don't balance props and I've never had any problems. I will check a prop when I first get it, and as long as it's not extremely out of balance I will use it. If it is way out of whack I'll get rid of the prop and not use. I know that many think that this is crazy to not balance a prop, and I used to be one of those. But then I started watching the prop in use and realized that it's possible for a prop to get back out of balance the very first time you use it. Things like a prop strike, a pebble hitting the prop, even a prop running through grass can throw off that perfect balance that I used to spend a lot of time working on. So I quit wasting the time. If a prop in use get's a chunk taken out of it from rough use I simply put a new one one an keep flying. But small dings and dents don't worry me. I have several engine with 400+ flights on them without ever balancing a prop and they still run great.

I understand that there are those that prefer to balance a prop and I won't take anything away from them. By all means balance them. I am just adding a bit of counterpoint to the discussion here and putting out that most props these days don't need to be balanced like they used to. Most props these days will come out of the factory pretty close, well close enough at least!!

Ken