Talking about props. There was a 500 hour pilot who regularly flew a C152 on traffic monitoring. Despite the early hours he loved the work and it got him more log book hours. He seemed unconcerned that another Cessna he flew on the job had a re-occurring significant fuel leak with fuel stains dripping down the passenger side door and in the area of the flaps.
In the C152 he said he did reduced thrust take off's. He explained that during the take off run the RPM steadily increased at full throttle until he was forced to gradually pull back the throttle to avoid exceeding the red line limit on the RPM gauge. This was during the take off run.
Questioned further, he wasn't aware of anything unusual and had never heard of the term minimum/maximum static RPM or was aware of its significance. It was suggested that he should write up his observation in the aircraft maintenance release. He declined, saying he was worried he might lose his job especially as there was no shortage of pilots lined up to get the next vacancy. In any case he thought it might be nothing more than an inaccurate RPM gauge. Other pilots flew the same aircraft and all knew about the problem but ignored it.
Some weeks later CASA looked into the matter. It was revealed that the propeller blades had been filed extensively to smooth out nicks. Apparently this placed it out of tolerance in terms of accepted wear. On take off therefore, the engine was actually overspeeding and the RPM indicator was telling the truth. Inspection of the engine revealed damage caused by regular overspeeding.