Bent Prop

[gcolyer]

Did anyone see chamblis smash his prop up in the Red Bull Air Race???

He almost hit a Cessna. Then he admitted on international TV he was taxiing without paying attention and with no S turns. And to put the cherry on top he said

"It's only a prop, I have a prop sponsor what do do I care. it's like changing a tire"

Fancy saying all that on TV.

[mike172]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBYrYjNi53M

Oops! I suppose doing that was better than running into the back of the Cessna though. Still pretty embarrassing for one of the world's best aerobatics pilots to do that!

[gcolyer]

Blimey it didn't take long for that to make YouTube!!

[Say again s l o w l y]

That was one of the most arrogant bits of nonsense I've ever heard on T.V. It's blatantly obvious they've not had any "meedja" training.

As for just changing a prop after that. Oh yeah? He's obviously never heard of shock loading an engine. That engine went from a pretty high RPM, to zero in double quick time. I wouldn't want to fly it until someone had looked inside.

Wonderful pilot, sh*te attitude. I expected better.

He's obviously embarrased, but you don't make things better sounding like a spoilt brat.

[High Wing Drifter]

There was something in Loop about the need for quick turnaround times with a new format. Not sure if this was the cause of the "We were in a hurry" comment.

[Say again s l o w l y]

He's an experienced enough guy to realise that "being in a rush" is when things go wrong.

Mistakes happen, but there's no point making up excuses about it, especially when a few million people have seen you stuff up.

I'm just glad most of my flights haven't been televised!

[Fuji Abound]

Good brakes though

[IO540]

It does suprise me how far somebody can get into aviation without knowing some really basic things. Still, I suppose that if you have never had anything to do with maintenance, it's a fair thing to know nothing about engine shock loading etc.

I know of a case (saw the damage myself) where a self fly hire renter went off with the towbar attached, took a chunk out of the prop, chucked the towbar away, went for a flight, came back and said nothing.

The missing chunk was about 20x20mm - must have vibrated "noticeably".

[VFE]

That's nothing - I know of one guy who went flying with a two foot tear from the leading edge halfway towards the rear of his wing after clobbering a taxiway sign prior to take off. The damage was clearly visible for all to see afterwards and the impact must've yawed the aircraft drastically - still he went flying, put the keys away after landing and said nothing!

As for Chamblis.... he just seemed embarrassed and did that classic yanky thing of pretending it was all "no-sweat". I am sure we can all prove our knowledge of engines by refraining from slagging the guy off for having a bad day tho?

VFE.

[gcolyer]

Yes but he had a bad day because he did not follow the basics. It was totally avoidable and his attitude sucked just because it is not his money replacing the prop. Could you imagine if had plowed in to the Cessna? some poor bugger would have had their spamcan written off because someone was not concerntrating.

[VFE]

And you'd be spot-on the ball following 1 min 40 secs of high-G manouvres being watched by over a million? Blimey, it get's a bit anal here sometimes doesn't it? Yes, he seemed arrogant but in fairness, he was probably still recovering from the shock of wrecking a prop and the fact he'd totally blown his session which obviously distracted him seeing as that was why he was there afterall! Next you'll be banging on about setting a bad example to aviators across the globe...
VFE.

[Say again s l o w l y]

My comments weren't based on this clip, rather on the UK TV feed, where he was interviewed by Jodie Kidd.

He may have been annoyed at making a stupid mistake, but it doesn't mean you have to come across as a tw*t.

I doubt his comments would be taken seriously by anyone with more than 10% of their brain working, but his comments showed that it was all caused by rushing, not following normal procedures (s turns when you can't see where you're going.)
Again all this is blatantly obvious, but his comment about not caring as he has a prop sponsor, was daft. If I was his sponsor, I'd be pretty annoyed at his attitude towards them.

He's obviously an incredibly talented pilot, but I would have expected better airmanship of someone so experienced.

[eharding]

I'm with VFE on this one - there does seem to be a lot of holier-than-though pontificating going on. Ground handling of high-performance aerobatic tail draggers is a tricky business at the best of times, and I know some of the best in the business who have had incidents of this type - there are those that have, and there are those that will. Of course, if you spend your life flying nothing but tricycle spamcans, then you won't have to worry - your main concern should be suffering a premature death from boredom :E

From the footage in the link above, he was clearly hacked off at screwing up, and even more hacked off at having a camera stuffed in his face. The TV coverage is designed for the masses - don't expect a self-critique to AAIB standards in a 30 second sound-bite.

[Say again s l o w l y]

I have a little experience of tail draggers with a fair few horse power. I'm not that fussed about other's opinions , but this wasn't exactly Chamblis' finest hour.

His comments were ill thought out, but honest. They came across as incredibly arrogant. He screwed it up, as all of us do at some point, but I don't do it in front of a TV crew.

I've never stood an aircraft on it's nose because I wasn't looking where I was going. That isn't to say I won't in the future, that wasn't the problem.

I'm not expecting an adrenaline charged ex-fighter jock who's just bruised his ego and a/c in front of millions to be an ambassador to the UN, but his comments were over the top even given this situation.

Fact is, he came across as a muppet and I have a huge amount of respect for all the Red Bull guy's. What do you think the general populace would think of that?

[gcolyer]

I am with you say again.

Ther ei sno doubt in Chamblis or the other pilots talent. It is purley his fippant attitude and comments that have donehim a wrongun. It is a shame the Jodie Kid interview isn't on your tube yet, at least everyone will see what we are on about.

[High Wing Drifter]

Tornado in a tea cup methinks. He came across as human, not some lobotomised F1 driver with an enterage of press officers, PR manager and masseurs.

[eharding]

Ther ei sno doubt in Chamblis or the other pilots talent. It is purley his fippant attitude and comments that have donehim a wrongun. It is a shame the Jodie Kid interview isn't on your tube yet, at least everyone will see what we are on about.

Stength 5, readability 1.

[mcgoo]

Don't see a problem, even the F1 guys make mistakes and write off million pound cars and they don't care either whats the differance?

[smarthawke]

According to a couple of friends who work for the series the call over the radio was: 'Kirby, STOP!'. And he did.....

Hacked off at his performance and taxying too fast without looking out.

Friends have left for Istanbul today but I'll ask them when they are back whether the prop was replaced or the engine shock-load inspection carried out. I think you'll find the props are Hartzell and made of metal.

If any propeller has to come off for repair or replacement following a ground strike or sudden stoppage, Lycoming consider the shock load inspection mandatory.

And given the snap and sustained G they subject the aircraft too, me thinks the engine came out for a look-see.

Wait for Monument Valley when a pylon is hit follwing pilot black-out due to a sustained 10G or so coming rounfd the corner. He came too when the pylon reduced the G....

[NigelOnDraft]

I think you'll find the props are Hartzell and made of metal. The one they show in close up with 2 clear MT Propellor stickers / symbols on :ouch:

[Say again s l o w l y]

From the close up shots, it looked like a composite prop rather than metal. Definately looked like MT stickers aswell.

Mind you, it wouldn't be the first time someone has used another manufacturers equipment, but changed the stickers to keep the sponsor happy!

[smarthawke]

Just seen the close-ups on YouTube and you're right, tis an MT prop. Composite props are normally aluminium encased in various composite layers.

Fact still remains that Lycoming say its mandatory to have a shock load inspection after a ground strile or sudden stoppage - and it was definitely both!

Brakes are good though....

[TurboJ]

An aircraft engineer once told me that the engine should be inspected if damage sustained to the prop is anything more than can be filed away such as damage caused by loose gravel etc.....

I can understand being hacked off but this guy seemed to have 'attitude' :{

[S-Works]

Its what set them up to do this sort of thing, not worrying about the trivia or the insurance company that so many on here let rule there lives.

So what if he bent the prop or the aircraft and did not respond the way the perfect puritans expect. Just the same as the F1 drivers, to excel you have to be free of some of the self imposed restrictions......

[shortstripper]

Now what's that expression? .... Oh yes, sh1te happens! Give the fella a break!

In my experience, you may laugh, but one day you may do something similar. When it does, will you have the grace to reflect with a smile when the joke's on you? !! :E

SS

[Pilot-H]

I found it humbling to actually watch such a skillful and accomplished pilot make such a basic mistake.

Aviation history is littered with worse. It should make us all think.

[gcolyer]

Making a mistake and admitting it is fine by me. I am not knocking the guy for that, infact hat off to him. It was the stupid arrogant comments that followed that annoys me.

[davidatter708]

You can't blame the guy for what he said he would have had it in the neck from people higher up that he was not s turning and would have been extrememely annoyed not only for the ground incident but for hitting the gate so of course he isnt thinking straight his mind is on other things everyone says stupid things occasionly in their life so give him a break. In fact I think congratulations are in order instead of ruining somone else day by hitting the cessna he broke his own aircraft also at least he noticed it. I could name a couple of incidents with tail draggers including oshkosh last year.
David

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

Of course a pilot of his experience would be aware the engine was shock loaded. But there was no need for him to say so, to millions of viewers and a Ch4 commentator who were none the wiser it was anything worse than a damaged prop.

SSD

[MichaelJP59]

He was definitely embarassed both about his run in the race and then compounding it with the taxiing error.

I'm sure he'd much rather not have been interviewed at all but maybe it's in the pilots' contracts to do so after each run. Probably he'd rather have been turning the air blue and throwing something heavy at a wall, these are hyper-competitive guys after all.