"Jim Macklin" wrote in news:JnXah.1960
:

THE first indication of an oil problem is a run-away prop on
a single-engine with a typical constant speed prop. The
prop governor is just a high pressure oil pump and control
valve that must be supplied with engine oil under pressure
and with adequate volume. If the engine oil galleries and
lines are not full of oil, the governor will not work. On a
multiengine airplane, the prop will feather.
The prop, on a single, becomes fixed pitch and the throttle
controls rpm just like it was a solid fixed pitch. The
engine will run just fine as long as it has oil, but a
ruptured line or gasket will dump the oil and you don't know
exactly what is happening, so land ASAP.

Yeah - the way it was explained to me was that springs push the prop to full,
and oil pushes the prop back to govern the RPMs. But as you say, once I know
the oil pressure is low, it's time to pull over and get it checked out..

The tape went like this... "Capitol tower, Mitsubishi 12345
has some cock in the smoke pit." This was repeated several
times, word for word, with out having any screaming, voice
inflections or emotions.

THAT is funny!