I have a Nexstaar select and the last time I was with an instructor on a buddy box, he was trying tp teach me to fly at idle about 2 ft from the ground and I had trouble keeping the aillerons level to have a glide in to slide across the feild. The fuselage tiped forward and broke the prop. A storm was just going north of us and I had quite a bit of wind affect and I had to land quickly before rain. Anyways, I put on a new prop and checked balance by taking a srew driving and inserting the propeller on it and looked at it at eye level it was balanced well.

I bought some red-orange paint and painted the tips of the propeller until I thought the prop was balanced horizontally but one end keeps dipping down. Could I assume that the prop is still balanced? Does the prop always dip a little bit until it acheives weight equilibrium? I am not sure if I have a balanced prop.

Thanks.

The end that tips down is heavy. I paint my nylon/glass props with a little green flourescent testors model paint on the light end to add a bit of weight. The paint adds visibility to the propeller's outer arc and it's much easier to balance a nylon/fiberglass prop by adding weight than trying to sand it down.

Once the propeller is going 12,000 rpm, you can't tell only one tip is painted. I can also tell at a glance if a propeller is balanced or not by whether or not I painted one tip.

I've been flying with a black Master Airscrew 11-5 prop and painted both tips yellow. Black is very difficult to see when spinning but the yellow does work for visibility.

Yes, we balanced it after painting by dusting on a lite 2nd coat on the lighter blade.

Using a screw driver stuck through the prop hole isn't really worthwhile. Matter of fact, you can't, "assume that the prop is still balanced?" because you don't actually know if it was balanced in the first place.

There are a number of very good prop balancers on the market. They're worth what they cost.

BTW, it's usually very simple to paint a prop and not screw up it's original balance. Simply paint each side with the same number of brush strokes. Don't glop it on. Paint one thin coat on one tip, then duplicate the amount on the other tip. Let them dry for two reasons. The most important one is that when you're painting, paint won't show you how well it's covering until it dries. So you wind up slapping on way too much paint.

A number of competitions "require" painted props. Those competitors found out right away that thin coats of paint over the entire prop only disrupts the balance a little, but not if you count your brush strokes.

You cant assume that a prop is balanced after painting it unless you re-balance the prop.
I rough up the tips spray prime paint and clear coat mine then I ballance the prop by sanding the back of the blade.
The only reason to paint the tips is for visibillity, take a lesson from the military.
WW2 props were painted yellow I still think its the easiest to see
modern tips are 6in white 6 in red and 6 inch white you can see it ok unless its a foggy morning, I found red white and blue are the best on full scale. if you cant use yellow
Anyway, to me yellow is best can be seen against grass or asphalt.
believe it or not I'll bet the easiest color to see would be pink. ever see an airplane with pink trim