"Morgans",

Actually, two or three miles is not at all unusual if a prop is flung
at altitude. The event is not nearly as common as it used to be (prop
design is better, so it usually is an indication of serious
maintenance neglect). If you go back into the historical record props
came off of hubs with a distressing regularity prior to WWII, but
continued from time to time since then. Depending on the altitude of
the airplane when the prop departs and the direction the pilot turns
in gliding to a landing (assuming no major damage to the airframe
caused by the departing prop, and the airplane is controllable), the
distance between propeller and airplane can be several miles.

There is a good discussion of the topic in the era between the World
Wars in _The Eighth Sea_ by the late British test pilot, Frank T.
Courtney. Very good and interesting book.

Friend of mine flung the prop off of a Grumman Ag-Cat he was flying.
As he pulled up off of a spray pass, having just shut off the
chemical, the engine rpm went up radically and the airplane
decelerated sharply. He was at about 50 feet agl, stuffed the nose
down, but still stalled a few feet above the ground, hit hard and
flipped. He was unhurt. After he got out, wondering what in the
world had happened (he didn't see the prop go), he walked around the
airplane a few times before he realized the prop was missing. It was
never found.

All the best,
Rick

"Morgans" wrote in message ...
"Bob Gardner" wrote in message
...
A founding member of the Compuserve Aviation Special Interest Group, who
is
regrettably no longer with us, lost the prop on his GlasAir and watched as
it flew off into the distance....there's a heck of a lot of pressure on
the
back side of the propeller disk. He survived the landing.

Bob Gardner

Yes, but not 2 to 3 miles.

I have been passed by a hubcap, but passed it again pretty soon.