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Old 3rd August 2010 | 13:25
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Centaurus
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Joined: Jun 2000
: ATP+Mil
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From: Australia
Doing so I gave the propeller, in addition to the centrifugal force, another one caused by gyroscopic precession with a resultant direction that would have detach it from the engine on a course perpendicular to the wing, thus avoiding either the fuselage and the outboard engine.
The propeller, or rather the hot block, pulled away in the right way just as I had expected, and disappeared into the ocean.
An almost identical situation happened to a USAF Military Air Command (MAC) Stratocruiser C-97 over the North Pacific - Honolulu to USA, in the Fifties. Runaway No 1 prop. Unable to feather. The crew "froze" the engine by cutting off the oil supply, the prop slowed and the pilot deliberately feathered the adjacent prop (No 2 engine) as he was concerned if the No 1 prop came off it would hit the No 2 prop. He then applied strong pitch (elevator) movement and the gyroscopic forces on the free spinning prop caused the prop to depart. He banked instantly hoping to make the prop fly over the fuselage. It did but took chunks of the No 2 stationary prop on the way.
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