wayneparrish

My Feedback: (16)

[]Just a word of warning to everyone running a prop on anything,but especially the big stuff. This past weekend I had a prop blade break off in flight and which resulted in my having to put my 33% Gee Bee down off field . It sustained damage but repairable . The real heart stopper was that since this was going to be my last flight of the day,I didn't worry with re-needling the engine as it was a little rich. If I had had the experienced hands to hold it ,I would have re-needled it and someone might have gotten hurt or worse when the blade seperated !!! It is a MAJOR mfgrs. wood prop and am not at liberty to say who right now. It was a brand new prop and had two flights on it that day. There was about 20 people at the field when it happened so there's plenty of proof that it wasn't a damaged prop. The point of this post is this .STAY BEHING THE PROP DISC AND DON'T LET ANYONE GET IN FRONT WHEN ITS RUNNING !!!!!!!!! THESE PROPS WILL KILL,SO BE CAREFUL !! If you want to see the break on the blade,email me and I'll send you a pic.. [email protected] I've been flying a/c for over 40 years and have never seen this happen before,but a thorough inspection of your props grain structure may be in order. Wayne Parrish

scottfl78

Glad no one was hurt.. I always stay behind them when possible..

Thunderbolt47

My Feedback: (8)

Hey Wayne, Rick told me what happened. I glad no one was hurt. Sorry to here about the damage on your GeeBee. Hope you have it fixed for Fayetteville, I'll see you there.

wayneparrish

My Feedback: (16)

kelly, I'll have it repaired by next weekend if all goes well. the finish paint may not be on the wing tip ,but it should be flying. Thanks for asking about it. See ya then,Wayne

Thunderbolt47

My Feedback: (8)

Hey Wayne, While your in a repairing mood, don't you fill like repairing my mustang. I had another boo-boo with it. I'll tell you about it at Fayetteville.

wayneparrish

My Feedback: (16)

Life's full of boo boos it looks like. Wish i didn't have to do this repair,BUT,thats r/c flying ! We love it !!

Cobra1

My Feedback: (42)

Years ago I had a composite prop loose a blade at full throttle in flight. The imbalance ripped the motor (G38) out of the airplane and of course the plane became rather tail heavy and out of control. The motor was destroyed, bent crank and broken flywheel from the fall. I was not too concerned before this happened but since then, I never stand in the propellor arc or let anyone else stand there either.

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

I have purchased several name brand wooden propellers.
What I don't like is that you can see them flex as you go from idle to WOT.
I now no longer use a propeller that flexes when power is applied.
I will not name manufacturers, but some of the popular guys have semi-ridged propellers.

CDignition

My Feedback: (9)

All wood props flex under WOT conditions...I have a NX 32x10 on my DA150, and it flexes some..I like carbon much more, as the performance is greatly increased due to less flexing (flattening)

wayneparrish

My Feedback: (16)

I have downloaded two pics of the prop in question because of the tremendous interest in it. LET SAY AGAIN,this was a very famous named mfr. and it is just one of those things that happen .My fury will omly be raised if and when the mfr. decides they will not pick up the cost of the rebuild and labor. QUALITY CONTROL was non existent on this particular prop and there are in fact many others out there that cam from the VERY SAME BLANK of wood !!!!!!! Does that scare the hell out of you enough to GO CHECK THOSE PROPS ,and STAY OUT OF THE PATH OF THE BLADE DISC !! You can e-mail me at [email protected] for further. Wayne Parrish

canavanbob

My Feedback: (20)

Quality control does not end at the factory. Every pilot is responsible for every component he/she installs on a plane. Every wooden prop should be inspected for grain direction, damage and irregularities. The prop should be balanced and the prop should be ran at an acceptable RPM. We are all responsible for the safety of our planes, but we all seem to be complacent from time to time.

Bob

Diablo-RCU

My Feedback: (1)

As an engineering material, wood has some issues. The big problem is that you can't predict the mechanical properties because no two trees have the same grain structure. The grain structure isn't consistent even within the same tree or piece of wood. It's hard to know at this point if the failure was caused by poor machining or too much rain one summer when the tree was growing.

wayneparrish

My Feedback: (16)

I have been told by a very quick look at the wood,that it was a compression problem that caused the wood to grow in this manner. If you look at the face of the prop,you will see what I call a swirl or burl pattern as would be found in a very hard area in the wood. I will try today to get a good face shot of the area with my close-up equipment and post it later. I am carrying the prop to a NCSU professor hopefully next week for her to look at and analyze.She is a world known expert in the field of grain structure in wod growth. I STILL WANT TO EMPHASIZE THAT THIS COULD HAVE HAPPENED TO ANY MFGR'S PROP !! Mother Nature had a big hand in this ,but we need to be smart enough to (1) STAY CLEAR OF ALL PROPS,NO MATTER WHAT CONSTRUCTION (2) CHECK YOUR PROPS VISUALLY BEFORE YOU USE THEM AND PERIODICALLY DURING USE. I continually see people stand or sit in front of a prop and run the engines up to full throttle with no regard to their safety !!!!!! Just an hour before this happened I had to get several people to get BEHIND the prop disc when I ran up the GeeBee . I always turn the prop also so that if it should come off or sling a blade the track will be away from people. Be safe,have a good weekend. Wayne

Diablo-RCU

My Feedback: (1)

Yep, you have to treat these things as if the prop could fly off at any moment. I once had a spectator get mad at me because I wouldn't rev up my motor with him standing in front of the prop. I tried to wave him away with my hand - he didn't get it. Finally I just killed the idling motor and waited until he walked away.

Tim_Indy

I'm betting that fury will be raised ........ No question, though, that regardless of prop type or manufacturer, one should definitely stay out of the prop arc, and frontal path if anything comes loose.

Gremlin Castle

My Feedback: (14)

You should probably be getting things in order to get furious.
Past experiences have shown that in much less than 50% of the time will the manufacture or the distributor do anything that might indicate that they have liability as a result of product failure.
I had an experience several years back where the pins in brand G metal clevises were improperly made resulting in the pins coming out in flight. Even after showing a 15% failure rate in a test of 100 parts the only thing they sent was a crude device to load the clevises to see if they might fail prior to installation.
No mention was ever made of compensation for the 100" Chipmunk, the crank, the servos, or even the 100 clevises we bought at the local hobby shops for the test.
Maybe with internet exposure things have improved but I would not bet the farm on it.

Antique

My Feedback: (4)

Good luck getting anything at all...I had a brand new wood prop break when I ran one of my G62s on the test stand..The prop was brand new, never mounted before, no hole for the anti rotation pins...Sent it back to the manufacturer, got 2 new props and NO explanation...

wayneparrish

My Feedback: (16)

Hey Ralph . Hope things are going well . As far as getting something,the only thing I really want is to get the servos that were damaged replaced and any other componenets. As far as my time for the rebuild,I have mixed feelings on that. On one hand,you rellay would expect a company to try and rigt a wrong,especially in the VERY small r/c market. A lot of bad publicity can be had in a very short period of time today. On the other hand I know that there was no ill will meant toward anyone by this very famous company and they have ,or at least the distributor,been responsive to the isssue. THE MAIN THING I want to come out of this ,is for EVERYONE TO READ THIS EVENT and be safer handling these motors ,ANY MOTORS !! If I could be assured everyone would be handling these things better ,that would be enough payback for me. UNFORTUNATELY,we still ahve some DUMMY's that persist in cranking an engine and sitting in front of it to run it up. YIKES,IT SCARES THE CRAP OUT OF ME WHEN I SEE IT !!! No matter what you say to them they look at you like you're invading their privacy !! Oh well,you can take a r/c pilot to the smart trough ,BUT you can't make him drink of the smart water . Keep this thread going as long as we can as it may make a difference to someone. Have a good Sunday. Wayne

blikseme300

My Feedback: (118)

I recognise the brand of prop. Those units are much too thin and flexable to my liking. But, then again, any brand or type of prop can fail. It has even happened on commercial airliner props that are very rigorously checked during manufacture and service.

The main lesson is the safety one, as pointed out. Props can seriously hurt you, even possibly kill you! As noticable absence at most fields is the posted notice, "Model aircraft are dangerous, enter at own risk."

'nuff said.

Safe Flying!

Eagle Flyer

My Feedback: (84)

As far as the manufacturer goes, they would have to be idiots to fess up they had a bad product. That leaves them wide open for the lawyers. And people would take advantage of it. They sue for millions and millions then turn around and ***** when product costs go up. They have to cover their losses from the law suits some where. Insurance isn't free. And there is only one place they can do that. OUT OF YOUR POCKET!!!!!!! A company's first objective is to make a profit. Has to be. If they don't, they go out of business. Then again the customers ***** cause their not around any more to take care of them. Ironic since in cases like this it's the customers fault to start with. There is no way a company can fully monitor 100% of their product or labor, top to bottom, front to back, inside and out etc. etc. Cost would kill them. Their competition doesn't do it so they can't afford to either. Drives their own product too high in price and prices themselves out of business.
Working for a manufacturer and traveling the world I see this sort of thing first hand. And even when the cutomer is wrong they may still claim astounding amounts in the courts. All they have to do is win the sympathy of the jury.
Just hope your not on the recieving end of it some time. Look at the actor that just got aquitted of murder. Cost him everything he had. 10 million plus he says. How many of us have that kind of money? Those with out it would now be inside looking out. I'm not saying he is innocent or guilty. It's just the way the system works.
A person shouldn't have to work all his life only to have everything taken away from him in a law suit just because some xxxhole is too lazy to work. This is why I feel in the case of law suits the looser should have to pay ALL legal fees. Then all those frivilous law suits that keep driving up the price of things that you and I have buy every day would go away.

I am not saying you don't have a legitemate complaint. Just don't expect miracles.

wayneparrish

My Feedback: (16)

Maybe somewhere in this thread i gave the idea that I was looking for something out of this ? I only want people to be aware of what they are doing and be safety conscious when operating these engines. I HAVE NO INTENTION OF SUING ANYONE OVER THIS !!!! I agree that the sue rules need to change ,but we are NOT TALIKNG ABOUT SUITS on this thread ,PERIOD ! Look back over my posts and you will find that my reason for posting this event was STRICKLY for safety reasons. If the mfgr pays me for the relatively small loss I am incurring,fine,if they don't I just will find somewhere else to spend my money ,BUT I WON"T BE SUING ANYONE. Don't get me wrong,I am not insinuating that anyone is accusing me of suing the mfgr.,BUT I WANTED TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT !! Wayne

Eagle Flyer

My Feedback: (84)

Didn't mean to insinuate anything or upset you. You did say;

(As far as getting something,the only thing I really want is to get the servos that were damaged replaced and any other componenets. As far as my time for the rebuild,I have mixed feelings on that.)

If they were to replace anything is it an admition of guilt? Maybe, I won't say. But take it one step further. If the failure led to personal injury or worse then a lot of people would definetly do something more drastic. Companies can't take the chance. I personaly saw a man's whole life's work down the drain on one lawsuit. That's why they ussualy take the "we found no problem but here is a free replacement of our product" approach. It's a gesture in hopes of satisfying the customer. And saving their but.

A friend of mine had a spinner bolt fail. Sounds harmless in it's self. But it took about 1" of one end of the 22x10 prop with it on a 28% plane when the spinner went by. Then it shook the whole plane so badly that not only did it vibrate out all the screws holding on the canopy/cockpit assembly but he could see the plane shaking from the ground. Could have easily led to a catastrophy and more. Do you think the company that sold the spinner or made the bolt is going to admit to a bad batch of hardware? No way. Even though that very thing has been known to happen. i am simply stating why so many times we as consumers can't get anything for our losses so many times.

Sorry if I upset you or thought I was trying to make people think things you didn't mean. Wasn't my intention. But so often people just don't realize how serious a simple act can be. What if my friend's plane would have gone out of control totaly and went some where off in the distance into a crowd of people? What good would a new spinner bolt done him?

wayneparrish

My Feedback: (16)

No insult taken > I agree with you and its unfortunate that"s the way our society is going. Wayne