I see. You are thinking of a pusher. Well perhaps you will need a shield
to deflect any oil vapor that tends to accumulate on the front side of the
spinner bulkhead. Good point. The Hoffman, IVO and the MT would have the
same problems.

You are right, so far people worry about props other than composite or wood on pushers due to the loading/unloading as the blades pass behind the trailing edges of the cowling. All metal props are a no-no. Just the turbo 13b alone is such a significant boost over the IO-360 that we will be happy with some flavor of fixed prop for awhile.
...Chrissi

Most high speed tractor hombuilts have such a high power to weight ratio that the fixed pitch prop 
can be optimized for cruise and still allow the airplane to take off in less than 1000 feet.

I am not sure I can say that about canards however. I am not sure why. Just
an impression I get from talking to people. Perhaps the canard does not have
enough elevator authority to rotate the wing to an optimum angle of attack
for a short takeoff. If true you will need a variable pitch prop to
optimize both takeoff and cruise MPG.

This is what one prop company claims a variable pitch prop can do for
takeoff and climb.

Of course with a turbo rotary you can always run up the boost and not
worry about blowing the cylinder heads out through the sides of the cowl :-)
Dave Garber and Greg Richter proved that.

Paul Lamar

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