Many Moons ago in a small world of Southeastern Washington I blew a tire while landing in a Supercub .
PA-18 went over on it's back in soft dirt. Prop looked like part of the cowl -windshield broke out -vertical
fin and rudder crunched -top of wings were damaged . Line crew had overfilled "soft field tires" much like our "alaskan bush wheels" now. We had a spare Cub back at the shop and I jumped in truck to fetch some parts. I went after a prop and rudder -lots of duct tape-bailing wire and wheel with tire etc. My Boss stayed with PA-18 while they towed supercub up to farmers house. When I returned with parts we comenced to get everthing back together ASAP . Saftey wire stiched windshield kind of back together .
Jury rigged vertical fin back semi-straight .Attached cub rudder and replaced wheel .When it came to prop the dowel pins would not line up with holes ??? Laid bent up prop on ground and farmer drove his truck over it several times -put prop in vise and heated and made reasonably close to shape . Bolted prop to supercub and did a ground run -tips were "singing" -Marvin (my Boss) ask me if I wanted to fly back or drive the truck -I took the truck and headed for town. When he took of you could hear high pitched "wa-Wa -Wa" but it flew. I raced toward Walla Walla at gov't regulated 50 mph and supercub wasn't much faster .I ended up recovering Supercub next winter and fixing all the other ills.

One shouldn't fly with bent propellers.

It kind of amazes me how many people will have a prop strike & just replace the prop and keep on a-flying -- no teardown inspection, no nothing. And I don't mean just buzzing the tips in the grass-- I'm talking about a full-power solid impact on the ground Q-tipping prop strike here. I don't know about Continental but Lycoming had a mandatory AD (is that redundant?) specifically detailing the inspection procedure required after a prop strike.

mtv wrote:Fly with a bent and/or damaged prop, even one with a relatively small nick in the wrong place, and the FAA may be the LEAST of your problems. I've seen an airplane where the engine came off its mount due to a prop tip departure at high rpm. That is generally (and was in that case) a fatal.

Messing around with props is a BAD idea if you like living, and you like your airplane. We had two inches come off a Cub's prop tip. The pilot landed it (on skis). No harm, no foul. Sat out there till someone brought them another prop, all while his dipstick back seater was suggesting cutting off the other tip, etc. Put a fresh prop on it, flew it to town (40 minutes) and mechanics found two of the motor mount tubes were broken all the way through. That engine was hanging on by a thread.

I wouldn't mess with a damaged prop, my own self.

MTV

MTV - that's pretty much my thinking too. I wouldn't fly with a bent prop ... I'm a pretty big chicken when it comes to making airworthiness decisions.

However, I was pretty surprised to hear a prop shop mechanic tell me - and show me specific bent-tip props - that it's OK to fly a bird with one of those to get back to somewhere the bird could be serviced. I wouldn't even have posted my question if that advice had come from someone who isn't a certified prop repair guy.

Zane - you're right, I hadn't heard about the lurker who reported a poster to the FAA ... that's a really really shitty thing to do to anybody. But as I and several others have suggested, we can always attribute these stories to "a friend" to avoid the effects of any snitching. You'll note that I did not name the prop shop mechanic or the airport he works out of.

Different but similar.

I knew a guy that was the crew chief on a Huey in Vietnam. If they had to land, they would use their main rotor to cut their way through the trees. To get back up, he said they would duct tape the mains and take the ship home at about 80mph. Most of the time, this would work. He had a lot of crazy stories. Was shot down at least three times.

As for plane props, I sure wouldnt fly a bent one. One little crack inside the prop and you can have the blade come off, then follow with the engine. Aren't going to balance that bad boy out unless you crawl outside with a buddy and hang off the nose together, and then its kinda hard to fly.

I've heard that you don't need to do an engine teardown if you whack a prop with the engine off. For example, having to land gear up, and killing the engine before touchdown. Any truth to that?

There is a story out there about a 170 that lost a single blade, which resulted in the entire engine/mount/cowling departing the aircraft. The pilot deadsticked it, flat firewall straight ahead, to safety. Aviator myth or true story?

The balance had to have been obscenely out of wack.

Zane, I thought it was a 185 on skis. Cable broke, sucked into prop, ripped motor off and fuse into two pieces. Someone in the back of the plane survived the spiral down into a snowbank?

Seems nuts, but I thought I had read the NTSB report on here a while back.

I can't believe the W&B would make a plane flyable without an engine.

[quote="PilotRPI"]Different but similar.

"I knew a guy that was the crew chief on a Huey in Vietnam. If they had to land, they would use their main rotor to cut their way through the trees. To get back up, he said they would duct tape the mains and take the ship home at about 80mph. Most of the time, this would work. He had a lot of crazy stories. Was shot down at least three times."







"Cutting down " trees with a UH1- is not advised. I had a mid air in Helicopter (in Viet Nam yes) and it was with another aircraft in flight . Blade strikes were serious business - trees or bushes were always present danger . I 'm retired CW/5 Helicopter pilot(30 years) with over 12,000+ combat hours ,another 3500+ hrs of civilian helicopter driver and 7500+ of airplanes SEMEL ,Comm, ATP airplanes and Helicopters.A&P /I.A. and all that other FAA stuff

P.S. I was shot down more in one day -- 5 times from noon to sundown . Bill Reid 90th. SOG 1967 1975

"Have tools can travel"

Zane wrote:There is a story out there about a 170 that lost a single blade, which resulted in the entire engine/mount/cowling departing the aircraft. The pilot deadsticked it, flat firewall straight ahead, to safety. Aviator myth or true story?

The balance had to have been obscenely out of wack.

Don't know about the 170, but it did happen on a factory Aeronca 7AC back in '45 or '46. I've got the book with picture post landing. Factory test pilot was trying new wood prop. Most of one blade departed in flight, followed shortly by engine. Spiral cabin heater hose unwound and beat the s__t out of tail feathers. Pilot probably got stick forward and dang near climbed onto glare shield but managed to land it. Note that on 7AC, unlike J3, solo is from front seat.

We have an *'old timer' in our EAA club that had an engine separate immediately after a blade did. He was at a high enough speed and managed to be smart enough to pushover to keep his airspeed UP so his tailfeathers would keep working and landed 'at speed' (I don't know if he climbed on the instrument panel, too). There are pictures that have been passed around an EAA mtg. of the reasonably intact airplane. I just called a friend and it was a Luscombe Sedan he was flying. In the 4.5 decades of time I have been associated with the aviation community, this is the only one I am aware of that came out well (pilot survived).

lc

* at our club I'm one of the young fellas.........

My AME told me a story about a guy that had that happen in a cub and he sat the glare shield and flew backwards.

182 STOL driver wrote:

PilotRPI wrote:P.S. I was shot down more in one day -- 5 times from noon to sundown . Bill Reid 90th. SOG 1967 1975

Must have gotten wearisome after about the third time. "Here we go again!"

......and Bill, I think we are still payin' for'em........ ....

nealkas wrote:

182 STOL driver wrote:

PilotRPI wrote:P.S. I was shot down more in one day -- 5 times from noon to sundown . Bill Reid 90th. SOG 1967 1975

Must have gotten wearisome after about the third time. "Here we go again!"

Response from my Crew Chief "Boss Do you think we ought to crash where we did earlier -think there's some more C-rats there , S&R bird overhead , Sandy in trail -- and your on fire again ".My nickname was "Give it back to the taxpayers Reid"--maintenance officer hated to see me coming.I tore up a lot of helicopters "call it "hostile aircraft modification" . After a experience like that nothing gets me excited (except weather) anymore. My first engine out experience was at night on takeoff from Crop Duster strip on Washington-Oregon border.Been there done that .Been flying since I was 14 -some 49 years ago.

We are glad you are here to tell us about it, Bill.........
Your guarding angel musta been gettin' overtime pay.....
....and maybe some medals, too........

lc

Littlecub wrote:We are glad you are here to tell us about it, Bill.........
Your guarding angel musta been gettin' overtime pay.....
....and maybe some medals, too........

lc

Where is Dry Washington ?

Just across the mountains from Wet, Washington.....

MTV

Bingo, Mike....
Washington State is divided by the Crashcade (aeronautically speaking)mountains into a very Wet west side and very DRY eastern ~half returning to 'damp' on the east edge.......

Bill, that was meant as a compliment, you don't need to hunt me down!.......


lc

I grew up and have my Hangar on the Damp east edge about 50 miles south of Canada.
There is also a Swift out there that was doing aerobatics and lost 1/2 the prop then shortly after the engine, he was traveling fast and continued at a high rate of speed to the ground and landed, Picture of the plane is ugly, will try and find the picture and story.
GT

PS_In addition......
Dry WA is also a political indication.
We are mostly conservative since we are rural mostly ag based.