[N941WR]

Paul mentioned this in the ?You know you are old? thread:

3) You always park the airplane with the prop horizontal, to make sure you don?t get a "heavy blade"?.

Here is why:
If your airplane has a wood prop, you would park it with the prop horizontal so moisture wouldn't collect on it and get absorbed by the lower blade, thus throwing it out of balance.

 

[Louise Hose]

Thanks!

If your airplane has a wood prop, you would park it with the prop horizontal so moisture wouldn't collect on it and get absorbed by the lower blade, thus throwing it out of balance.

Thanks, Bill, from all of us "younguns" who were too embarassed to ask.

 

[Dayton Murdock]

3 Blade?

Hey Bill
What do you do with a 3 blade prop?

 

[joeboisselle]

I used to park my Luscombe in an area with trees surounding it. With a prop vertical, I usually had a heavy blade due to the birds in the trees making a toilet of the top blade. That's the first thing I thought of...

 

[N941WR]

Hey Bill
What do you do with a 3 blade prop?

Don't ever shut it down?

Hey Dayton, how's the -4 doing? Run over any F-4's yet?

 

[RVAddict]

I'll admit I pm'd Paul to ask. But i'm a youngn too!!

 

[c177tx]

You can prevent getting a heavy blade with faa approved prop wash...

 

[GAHco]

Fix it right

If you get that FAA approved prop wash, fix it right, take the prop off with the left handed crescent wrench and clean it real good before you put it back on with a right handed one!

 

[Ironflight]

Ahhh, Younglings....

You just have to experience the tactile pleasure that comes from hand-propping a J-3 with a big, fat wood prop....It can't be explained - you have to feel it for yourself.

It feels like....Aviation!!

I'll go back to my rocking chair now...

 

[osxuser]

The 150 with the dead battery is the closest I've gotten .

 

[Scott P]

You just have to experience the tactile pleasure that comes from hand-propping a J-3 with a big, fat wood prop....It can't be explained - you have to feel it for yourslef.

Or the excitement of solo propping a J-3 from behind then quickly hopping in and trying to get your heels on the brakes and hand on the throttle as it starts to creep forward...

That evening you'll make up a set of chocks with ropes long enough to reach into the cockpit for retrieval after you're situated. Not saying I learned this the hard way...

 

[Paul Tuttle]

Heavy blades in WW I

I found this picture of a painting I did quite a while ago.The reference I used shows that the Germans must of worried about heavy blades as well.

 

[dav1111]

Joy of a J-3

Back in my college days (the 60's) I would get a chance to fly an original J-3. The hand prop no brake issue didn't seem to be all that nerve wracking at the time, but a few years later while seated on the aisle in a big screen movie theater, not like the small screens of today, watching "The Great Waldo Pepper" I realized just how much adrenaline I consumed starting the J-3.

When Robert Redford hand propped the J-3 and it started to roll off without him I was about 4 big steps down the aisle before I realized I was in a movie theater and sheepishly went back to my seat. My wife (non-aviator) asked me what that was all about. She just raised her eyebrows at me like oh brother another of your escapades when I tried to explain it to her after the movie.

 

[John_RV4]

The past is alive

Just as an FYI:

Hampton Airfield in New Hampshire still flys and rents Cubs with no electrical system. I have done a few hours with them just for the experience. Hand propping is lesson #1.

John

And by the way, I still have a wood prop and set it horizontal after every flight.

 

[videobobk]

Hand propping

Back in 1959 (maybe '60) I was in CAP. We leased an ex-military Aeronca from the government. I think it was $100 for 99 years. I kicked in $10, my first part interest in an airplane. I was 16. About a week after we got it, someone propped it from behind without chocks. Only problem was the throttle was open. It departed Rising Sun, Indiana without much hesitation, buzzed Aurora, IN just above the rooftops, and as fuel burned off, climbed to well above it's normal ceiling, something like 16,000'. By then the F-86's were tracking it and thought of shooting it down. It went over Cincinatti and ran out of fuel near Dayton. Observers said it would have made a good landing if it been a little higher. It hit a ditch and that was that. I never even got to ride in it. I have NEVER hand propped an airplane without someone itside. BTW, it was given the knickname "Hoosier Sputnik" by the press.

Bob Kelly