Ron Wanttaja wrote:

On Tue, 28 Jun 2005 18:25:53 -0700, Jerry Springer wrote:


Ron Wanttaja wrote:

Pretty incredible story:

http://www.ez.org/birdstrike.htm

Long-EZ pilot at 9,500 feet hit a bird, which shattered his prop, and the broken
prop took off almost all of one winglet. Full aileron was only able to keep the
wings level above 110 knots. Landed safely...sounds like a damn fine pilot.

Ron Wanttaja

Hi Ron, I wonder what the evidence is that it was a bird strike? I don't
see any blood and guts anywhere.


I noticed that, too. Something else could have gone through the blade, but I
don't know if a bolt or nut would do this kind of damage. The guy may have
cleaned it off already....

Ron Wanttaja

I also wonder about the scratches on the tip of the blade in the white
paint area? the prop looks like it may be a ?Bernie Warnke? prop that
has Kevlar on the tip. I had one on my RV-6 that had Kevlar on the front
tip and about 1/2 of the back side of the prop. I loaned it to the late
Bill Benedict to try on his RV-4 and he lost about the same amount of
tip on one of the blades. Not both as this one is. He was able to shut
down and make a successful landing on a airport without any other
damage. There was speculation that the wood was rotten in that area (I
had about 500 hours on the prop) or that it was not tracked right when
he installed it. He admitted he did not track it.

Jerry