Gord Beaman wrote:

It's interesting when large chunks fly off a prop blade.

Hell yes, wasn't that a hoot, especially when you were near some
young inexperienced guy, you could get quite a reaction outta him
with a horrified facial expression.


The first time I ever heard that I was flying at 10,000 feet against a brutal 60
knot headwind trying to make my way to Cincinnati with a load of auto parts in
the middle of the night. Mountains below; no oxygen above. I hadn't slept in
24 hours. Naturally I was by myself. No autopilot.

Frequent worried looks out at the wing with my flashlight.... popping the boots
from time to time.... occasional squirts of alcohol on the windshield... BOOM!
The fuselage got machine gunned as the props deiced.

The size of my sphincter was in inverse proportion to the magnitude of the BOOM.
A lovely evening.

There's more to the story: I fell asleep on the way back to Charlotte at about
0430 flying with a partial panel (AI had failed shortly after takeoff) while
running on the aux tanks. I was woken rather rudely by the left engine
quitting, and then while I was fumbling with the boost pumps and changing tanks,
the right engine quit as well. I remember the feeling of satisfaction I had
noting how closely I had leaned the two engines that they would run dry within
30 seconds or so of one another. I promised God if he would let me live, I
would never fall asleep again while I was flying.

I lied. God got me for it, too. One of the damned brakes failed on landing. I
missed my turnoff and an USAir jet had to go around. I bet he liked that.


--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN


http://www.mortimerschnerd.com