Fatal Injury: hit by the prop

The painted tips make the prop barely visible for day operation in my
opinion. The accident happened at night... not sure how visible the
prop is at night.

I got to thinking, and I just checked my solo certificate - that was
the plane that I soloed last month.

My take is the same - shut it down before anyone gets in or out. And
I've seen the model airplane thing more than once.

However, a discussion here some years ago drew a lot of posts from
people who get in and out all the time with the engine running. Their
arguments seemed sound but....

I concluded that for me, I will always shut it down. If you are
involved in an operation where you do it routinely and you've worked out
some reasonable procedures, go ahead. But for me, any reason I will
have for someone to get in or out is an exception, and that's when there
is a strong likehood of screwing up.

wrote:
My take on this, is that the engine should be shut down if anyone is
exiting the airplane for any reason. I think that "knowing" that the
prop is there isn't enough. People get distracted, hurried, etc.

This reminds me of a time when I was a kid and watched a friend of mine
stick his fingers into the prop swath of a model airplane. The prop cut
his finger to the bone. I asked him what happened, and he said "I guess
I just forgot it was there because I couldn't see it, and then just
reached in to adjust the idle screw"

i've been taught to never use the aircraft parking-brake since they
have a bad habit of getting hung-up. seems the extention of that is
never get out of the pilot seat with the fan on. i do know how easy it
is to get preoccupied with some thought or another and do something
dumb.

dan

I tend to approach this problem from a skydiver's perspective: always
approach the plane from the rear. If you need to do anything further
ahead than the door, shut it down.

"BTIZ" wrote in message
news:cuPId.8293$ry.1085@fed1read05...

What does the parking brake have to do with the pilot walking into the
prop?
Getting anywhere near the front of an airplane with a running engine is
something you just don't do.
I'm figuring he did one of two things. It was cold out, so he thought he
would start it first, let the engine idle and warm up while he finished
the
walk-around, or he forgot to pull wheel chocks.

he had already taxied to the departure end, it was in the original
posting..
BT


Oh, so maybe it was like this, pilot taxis to run-up area, sees something
amiss. Sets parking brake, gets out of plane (stupid) and stands in front of
plane with his back turned to wave at a buddy? It's irrelevant. Start a new
thread about parking brake use.

Barely visible is still better than invisible. And the color and pattern you
use could make a difference.

mike regish

wrote in message
oups.com...
The painted tips make the prop barely visible for day operation in my
opinion. The accident happened at night... not sure how visible the
prop is at night.

I got to thinking, and I just checked my solo certificate - that was
the plane that I soloed last month.

"Mike W." wrote:

The moral here is, if anyone
is going to be near the front of the plane, shut it down.

I'll shut down if I think there's a chance they could get near the prop, even if
I think they don't intend to do so. It's one thing I think I may be overly
cautious about (I always shout "clear", too, even if I'm sure there's no-one
around).

George Patterson
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.

wrote:
The painted tips make the prop barely visible for day operation in my
opinion. The accident happened at night... not sure how visible the
prop is at night.


The back of every prop I have ever seen is painted black. Presumably
to not be a distraction to the pilot while flying. Therefore the prop
disc would not be visible from the back. A 172 with the high wing
makes stumbling into the prop while exiting the plane fairly easy. At
least easier than a low wing. I have exited low wing planes with the
engine running on a few occasions and felt safe. Of course I never
walked past the trailing edge of the wing. Would not attempt this on a
hi wing tho.....

j

"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message
...

I'll shut down if I think there's a chance they could get near the prop,
even if
I think they don't intend to do so. It's one thing I think I may be overly
cautious about (I always shout "clear", too, even if I'm sure there's
no-one
around).

George Patterson
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble
enterprise.

It's really hard to overkill safety. After flying a while, you may think to
yourself 'it's really silly to shut down the engine everytime someone gets
in or out of the plane, I'm careful'. But you never know when that one
little step you take will make a difference and avoid a tragedy.

In Canada it's illegal to leave an airplane running with
nobody at the controls, though we see cropsprayers doing it. The only
exception is for handpropping, and that requires that the airplane be
secured against any possible movement.
Besides that, we regularly hear of folks walking into props,
even with someone at the controls. A fella and his wife were taxiing
out in their Cardinal when she decided she had to pee (sound familiar?)
and so he returned to the ramp and kept the engine running while she
got out and promptly walked thru the prop. End of wife. Is the starting
procedure really THAT much hassle that we can't pull the mixture and
restart a few minutes later??!

Dan