Fatal Injury: hit by the prop

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"

On Sun, 23 Jan 2005 at 06:57:38 in message
.com,
" wrote:

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"

Putting your fingers into the prop on models is not uncommon. Many years
ago when there were only two of us at the flying site the other guy did
this and I had to drive him to the nearest hospital.

I had my own rules:

1. Keep your head out the plane of the prop disc, especially if
running at high power.
2. Keep all of you behind the plane of the disc when making
adjustments to the mixture.
3. Only move very slowly.

If you move your fingers slowly and from behind and they inadvertently
enter the prop disc, then you may only receive a slight bruise and a
fright as the blades will tend to throw your fingers back out.


--
David CL Francis

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

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

"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.

"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.

"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.

On Sun, 23 Jan 2005 19:49:00 GMT, "G.R. Patterson III"
wrote in ::

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.

Flight instructors soloing student pilots are faced with this issue.
It would be interesting to know their personal procedure. Do they
leave the student at the controls with the engine running when they
send them on their first solo, or require a re-light? If the former,
it could unintentionally set a poor precedent for students.

The whole thought literally makes me sick to my stomach.
Joking about "Darwin Awards" here is annapropriate.
Those award require exceptional stupidity.
What happened here is a matter of carelessness or pure accident.

I'm sure these folks family don't appreciate the thought of calling
them Darwin Award recipients - these folks are bright enough to
earn a pilot's license.

If I were unfortunate enough to see an accident like this, I'm sure it would haunt
me for the rest of my life.