Dinged Up Prop

A friend with an RV-6 and one of those beautiful wooden props dinged it
up with a rock or some kind of FOD. The damage left a half-inch notch
about 15 inches inboard of the tip, so he filled it with epoxy and went
on like nothing happened.

One day he was at altitude over Rutherfordton playing around when all
of a sudden most of the prop outboard of the notch departed the
aircraft, setting up a "horrible" [as he called it] vibration. He
barely made it back to 0A7 and taxied to the hangar where he and I
shared space.

The next EAA chapter meeting he [who is quite the colorful character,
had flown Curtis C-46's over the Hump in WWII and though short but not
small can fill the room with his voice] stood up to tell what had
happened to him. He said when the vibration suddenly began, he figured
the engine would also depart the airplane, so, he said, "I very calmly
called the Asheville tower and announced, 'MAYDAY! M A Y D A Y, M A Y
Y Y Y D D A A Y Y Y Y !'"

On 4 Jul 2005 14:15:39 -0700, wrote:

A friend with an RV-6 and one of those beautiful wooden props dinged it
up with a rock or some kind of FOD. The damage left a half-inch notch
about 15 inches inboard of the tip, so he filled it with epoxy and went
on like nothing happened.

One day he was at altitude over Rutherfordton playing around when all
of a sudden most of the prop outboard of the notch departed the
aircraft, setting up a "horrible" [as he called it] vibration. He
barely made it back to 0A7 and taxied to the hangar where he and I
shared space.

The next EAA chapter meeting he [who is quite the colorful character,
had flown Curtis C-46's over the Hump in WWII and though short but not
small can fill the room with his voice] stood up to tell what had
happened to him. He said when the vibration suddenly began, he figured
the engine would also depart the airplane, so, he said, "I very calmly
called the Asheville tower and announced, 'MAYDAY! M A Y D A Y, M A Y
Y Y Y D D A A Y Y Y Y !'"

One of the Lancair 320s did just that a few years back on the way home
from Oshkosh.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

"Roger" wrote

One of the Lancair 320s did just that a few years back on the way home
from Oshkosh.

Did that one have just the prop, or engine, too, depart the plane without
being requested to do so?
--
Jim in NC

On Mon, 4 Jul 2005 22:51:07 -0400, "Morgans"
wrote:


"Roger" wrote

One of the Lancair 320s did just that a few years back on the way home
from Oshkosh.

Did that one have just the prop, or engine, too, depart the plane without
being requested to do so?

"It's my understanding" the whole works went which put it a tad out of
CG. I believe that was the one they raced at S N' F that year too.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com