Horizontal Prop and Thunderstorms

[Bryan Wood]

Sitting here watching the weather channel trying to learn trends for the trek to OSH next weekend and the thunderstorm activity covering much of the country got me thinking about parking outside in this kind of weather.

The point of this post is just a reminder to leave your props horizontal if your parking outside and if there is a chance of storms. We kicked this around on this forum a while back, but it might be a good idea to refresh our memories before the big show.

For those who don't remember, a couple of years ago there was a Bellanca Fly Inn in Texas and several planes were struck by lightening on their propellers. The ones with the props horizontal did not take strikes and were not affected by the storms. A strike on the prop likely means an engine teardown and prop hub damage so be careful out there. For those with three bladed props, ???

Good deed completed, see you at OSH, (weather permitting)

[Low Pass]

Now that everyone's props are going to be horizontal and les prone to taking a lightening strike, you better keep your head down!

[pierre smith]

....like a friend of mine down South did with his Air Tractor turbine. Seems that lightning struck his airplane at night and the next day, the starter was toast (and smelled like it) as the lightning had travelled through the engine and starter, to ground, through the chains and their steel tensioner.

The front bearing was arced and the engine began making metal, to the tune of a $30,000 damage rebuild.

Regards,

[Danny7]

most wood props require parking the prop horizontal any time precipitation or dew is a chance, it is a good habit to have.