Love these guys, especially new ones, that pose a question and then disappear....

Mark Y. wrote:Love these guys, especially new ones, that pose a question and then disappear....

Well, I for one am envious of someone who doesn't live every minute on the internet. Looks like he has a kid on his lap, and it's Christmas...

I guess we'll see. I am one of the guys stuck working 12 hr shifts through Christmas - so have a little time on my hands Lol

Mark Y. wrote:I guess we'll see. I am one of the guys stuck working 12 hr shifts through Christmas - so have a little time on my hands Lol

Thank goodness for the internet!

If it was just me flying all the time I might just keep flying if the prop dial was good (that is how most get back home). But I fly a lot of passengers so did a complete teardown on a 200 hr factory new motor.
DENNY

Mark Y. wrote:Love these guys, especially new ones, that pose a question and then disappear....

He’s getting good scoop (mostly) and many are benefitting.

The Rotax crowd seems rather blase about prop strikes, and I'm not saying that's good, just a fact. So don't waste time telling me it's a bad idea! But it does seem the reduction gearbox and it's slip clutch offers some degree of protection over a prop bolted direct onto the crank. What I hear in the aftermath of a prop strike is not talk about an engine tear down, more, "who has a prop I can borrow?" Of the half dozen or so incidents that come to mind, all have continued to fly many hours without any surprises. One prime example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ3WByjahOc&t=383s Note the lack of prop hub protection taken during the turn over to the upright position, blase, like I said Again, I am NOT saying this is the way to proceed after a prop strike in a Rotax powered plane, just that quite a few have and it seems to tolerate it.

Crop dusters are single seat, which made a huge difference until the cost of airplanes brought hull insurance into the equation. I have flown behind some ugly looking props and dialed flanges from totalled airplanes. What some have said about passengers, and insurance, are the major considerations.

My limited experience: flipped a plane on the beach, dug the tent-pegged prop out of the sand and flipped it back over, started the engine and walked into the prop sideways with a map, still in track so I flew an hour and a half over the mountains to get home. Kept flying.

Another time a buddy borrowed my Pitts at a contest and split one of the big aluminum-casting runway lights when he took a dance through them. Prop looked like a bent crosscut saw. I filed it out and flew it home, 2 hours over the mountains, at low rpm as suggested by "Fred" from the prop shop (he also suggested I keep it over roads). He fixed the prop and I kept it flying for years.

Put the Citabria on its nose on a gravel bar a few years back, borrowed a prop (missing dowel pins, but WTH) and flew it a couple hours home. Felt good, smooth, miked the crank, perfect. Then the piousness of this group and our "what's another few AU to keep flying" got to me and I pulled it and took it into a engine shop for a tear-down. They gave it back with the full Lycoming Part 135 prop strike blessing and said they found nothing wrong with it. But the next summer flying over the frozen Beaufort it was the one thing I was not worried about. Like helmets and ADS-B, just a value judgement on how safe do you want to be.