What would you do in this situation??

[ITCZ]

Re: What would you do in this situation??

What a bunch of girls. Give it a go mate. Just make sure you have your hand on the mixture at all times, ready to pull it back real quick like, coz if you do lose even an inch or two off that spinning prop, the imbalance will wrench the engine right out of its mountings and you will be going down like a cheap Thai hooker coz the airplane just got a ****load lighter and the CoG is way aft without that heavy donk, so your tailfeathers are just about useless.

Aaah, feel better now. Back to business.

Here are some tips I was given during training/hard experience in a couple thousand hours on 210/206.....

1. Do the same checks every time, every day. Don't rush or skip. When you do and inspect the following, you are building familiarity and routine. Knowing how something looked and felt that last hundred times you inspected it makes you more able to spot anything unusual.

2. If something doesn't look right, it probably isn't.

3. If you see something that makes you nervous or concerned, act on it.

4. Just about all the props on all the 210/206/402 I flew were 3 bladed CSU. First you would make sure the mags and switches are off before you start your preflight.

5. When you get to the prop, treat it as live. Oldie but a goodie. You will need two arms and two legs to fly that Airbus later.

6. Run your fingertips along the leading edge of each blade to feel for roughness or nicks. Eyeball both surfaces of each blade, leading and trailing edge as well. If it dark, you will be using your torch, wont you? (amazed how many times I have seen pilot 'inspect' their airplane in the dark with no torch, jesus wept.)

7. Inspect the spinner, look for cracks or damage, missing screws/bolts. Note any weeping of CSU oil along blades or on spinner. Look for any weeping or puddles of anything fresh under your aeroplane.

8. Grab each blade with two hands, one on the leading edge one on the trailing edge. Firmly attempt to rotate it from 'fine' to 'coarse.' There should be little to no play in each blade.

9. Grab one blade with two hands, usually the downward pointing blade if the prop has been 'dressed' and give it a firm pull forward and aft to see if there is any play there as well.

10. The first two or three times you do this, swallow your pride and go get an engineer and ask about anything you are unsure of. You want to get a feel for what is good and what needs attention.

I'm not chuck yeager, but that kept me alive for my 4 years/3000hr in pistons. There's probably some things i have forgotten to add. I'll come back and add them if/when I remember. Cheers.