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Old 11-26-2002, 08:04 PM   #6
MaggieL
in the Hour of Scampering
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Jeffersonville PA (15 mi NW of Philadelphia)
Posts: 4,060
Quote:
Originally posted by wolf

We've been looking at this pic in work ... my boss flies and he's the one who passed it around, with the story I reported to Toad (so it's the boss' fault!) The shearing looked too precise for a prop-strike ... wouldn't that have chewed the fuselage all to hell?
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That's what originally clued me that the chainsaw story was implausible...I doubt an enraged male on a testosterone high would be so precise...the precision was mechanical, like cutting screws on a lathe--it's typical of prop-strike damage.

The strike was only with the very tip of the prop cutting only the sheet alumininum skin (which is actually quite soft; it's the underlying steel alloy framing members that are rigid), spinning at full power. Hand-propping is done at full throttle--especially when the cockpit is unoccupied--which is why it must be done with the aircraft*very* well-chocked or preferably tied down.

I think we can be confident that the insurance people investigated the incident very well, since the same insurance company not only took the hit for this plane (which is clearly totalled, probably to the tune of about a half million US$) but also *four* other airplanes.

None of the five aircraft belonged to an instructor personally--they all belonged to the University flying school.
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