Prop Strikes

In article .com,
says...
Anyone else here ever experience one? How did yours happen?
Mine have been ag related and hit ground, rocks, birds, and ?
Ever throw off a piece of the prop blade? I lost a piece during
climbout of a jungle strip in the Amazon in a C-185. Managed to dead
stick it back without any further damage but it took nearly two months
to get a replacement. IN the meantime, I used a field expedient and cut
off an equal amount from the other blade. We were about 200 miles from
civilization on the Rio Curaray.
Ah the fun old days....
Ol S&B

First non-solo PPL flight (ie, my very first pax). They've sealed the
area now Started the Traumahawk up and taxied carefully over the
side of the undulation (well I thought it was the side, or "side
enough") - and felt a vibration lasting about half a second. I looked
at my pax, they looked at me - carried on. Got radioed by tower 30 sec
later to return to the operator base. Did so - someone had spotted some
grass flying up while I'd taxied and touched and the op radioed tower.
Checked out by the operator LAME and cleared to go. What a start to my
first passenger flight!!!

--
Duncan

We went through the prestart checklist, and I engaged the starter only
to hear a loud clunk as the first blade went by. He had left the tow
bar on the front gear leg.

I saw a guy do that once.

Hitting the tow bar may not damage the prop, but it sure would damage
whatever the tow bar hit. In the case I witnessed, the prop whipped the tow
bar into the adjacent hangar wall with surprising force. It was only luck
that kept it from hitting a car or bystander.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Cub Driver" wrote in message
...
On 25 Jan 2005 16:11:39 -0800, wrote:

Anyone else here ever experience one? How did yours happen?

My instructor was explaining how to make a wheel landing. I just
planted the thang too dang hard. I heard this whup! but we both
thought it was just the bungee cords complaining: it was a very firm
landing.

"I'll take it around, and you follow me on the controls," says he.

So we did. Then I taxied up to the pump and shut down, and I tell you,
it is a sinking feeling to gaze at your prop and notice that the ends
have somewhat melted and are curving in toward the cockpit.

There wasn't the slightest vibration, or loss in performance that
either of us noticed on that last circuit.

No damage to the engine, and as commander of the aircraft, the
instructor's insurance company had the privilege of paying for the
prop.

My technique has improved a lot since then.

As has the instructor's I hope. The decision to go around after he heard
the "whump" was in my opinion anyway, a bad one.
Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Commercial Pilot/CFI Retired
for private email; make necessary changes between ( )
dhenriques(at)(delete all this)earthlink(dot)net

Upper Cowl separated on one side on my Arrow in flight - wind blew it
up on the windshield and since the other side remained attached, it
twisted and put about a 1/8 inch dent in the back of both blades.
Mechanic insisted I tear the whole #$&$ engine apart. One blade turned
out to be out of spec, couldn't find replacement 2blade prop, ta da ta
da da da. That's how it goes with airplanes. At least I know the
engine is nice & clean inside and the new 3 blade prop looks nice.

John
In that same vein, with winter conditions, how about the frozen humps
from snow plows that are waiting to get the nose gear struts with
attendant prop strikes or linkage damage?
Owwww
Ol S&B

Dan
I had a similar landing incident when the very experienced ag pilot in
the front seat "stuck" the aircraft with positive forward stick on
touchdown and put sand marks about 6" up the prop blade and bent the
blades. We didn't follow up with any take off though. He was using his
usual technique of forward stick with the Stearman he had been using
for spraying and this time it didn't work on the Champion Scout we were
flying. I was showing him the aircraft and it was his first flight in
it. There is more to the story and in retrospect it's humorous but
nontheless serious.
Ol S&B

On Wed, 26 Jan 2005 14:43:35 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote in q0OJd.29738$EG1.8340@attbi_s53::

We went through the prestart checklist, and I engaged the starter only
to hear a loud clunk as the first blade went by. He had left the tow
bar on the front gear leg.

I saw a guy do that once.

Hitting the tow bar may not damage the prop, but it sure would damage
whatever the tow bar hit.

We were fortunate. The tow bar remained attached to the gear leg. I
presume this meant that the cylinder failed to fire in the first 180
degrees of prop rotation.

) wrote:

Anyone else here ever experience one? How did yours happen?

I have not experienced one personally, but a flight instructor and a
student from my flight school had landed at a nearby single strip
airport. Instead of back-taxiing down the runway, they opted to taxi on
the grass, which is actually an adjacent grass strip.

However, at the end of the grass strip they turned the aircraft around
to taxi onto the runway when the nose wheel dropped into a gopher hole.
The prop struck the soft ground but somehow neither student nor
instructor knew of the prop strike until they returned to our main
airport. Regardless of the softness of the ground, an engine tear-down
was needed.

--
Peter

You guys are freaking me out. I think I'll go buy an LA-4.

On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 23:10:02 -0500, Peter R.
wrote:

George Patterson ) wrote:

wrote:

Anyone else here ever experience one?

Not yet.

Two types of pilots, those that have and those that will??

Thats more true with retract pilots than with the tow bar!

Scott D

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