In article ,
zatatime wrote:

On Fri, 14 May 2004 21:29:38 GMT, Orval Fairbairn
wrote:

In article ,
zatatime wrote:

On Fri, 14 May 2004 03:01:09 GMT, Orval Fairbairn
wrote:

This past Monday, a couple of my friends took off in a Bonanza with a
3-blade McCauley prop installed. At about 1000 feet, on power
reduction, one of the blades came unhooked from its pitch change
mechanism and went into "free pitch" mode.

It apparently made a lot of racket and bad vibrations right away; they
were able to make a 180 and land downwind safely. They even had a hard
time taxiing, but all are safe.

Both McCauley and the FAA are really interested in this one -- to make
sure that proper overhaul procedures were followed and to ascertain
whether or not bogus parts were used.

The insurance company is paying for the engine teardown/rebuild, as
there is a possibility that the front bearing was damaged, due to
asymmetric thrust.

The fortunate thing is that it happened at 1000 feet, after takeoff from
a 4800 ft runway, lightly loaded.

Watch this space for possible AD and other stuff hitting the fan.


Was it a metal prop, or one of those new composite ones?

z

Metal -- you could rotate one blade freelt about its longitudinal axis.
I was told that there is a Mickey Mouse setup within the hub that locks
the blades together. I also understand that teardown is Monday, under
FAA supervision.


Thanks. I know most props aren't overbuilt. I'm very curious to see
what takes place over time with the new prop blades that are being
made.

Hope they find the root cause, and that it doesn't warrant an AD.

z

Current thinking is that the prop shop that did the O/H did not follow
McCauley procedures -- we will find out more on Monday, when they tear
down the prop. BTW, they could not even taxi the plane -- it had too
much vibration and not enough net thrust.