Another prop story
Wanna hear another prop story?
How 'bout this.
Several years ago I needed a prop checked out on an old spam can and sent the prop to Sensenich. Had to buy a brand new Sensenich prop box to send it in. 50 bucks for the box. Sensinich sent it back "red tagged" proclaiming how bad the prop was and it was 10 thousands under, blah blah and you need a new prop.
Not knowing any better I did my duty as a good little A&P and stamped the prop "UNAIRWORTHY". Then a DER came along and said, "man, that was a perfectly good prop, I could have given you a field approval for that in a minute. " Too late it was toast.
Here's a side view of the box the prop was in when I got it back from Sensenich via UPS (Of course I paid oversize shipping bothways). The prop flopped around in the box.
By this time I tracked down the only new replacement propeller east of the Rockies and I got "a good deal" on this one, only $2500. They sent it UPS. Here's the box when it got here.
It had obviously been thrown around and the ends were beaten up. The telling point was inside where the box had a spindle to keep the prop in place. It was ripped out and the prop had been po-go ing around by its ends.
I chewed out the UPS guy about mishandling a $2000+ item and I got the whole melodrama: "I been working 10 hours, no lunch, if the boss finds out I will lose my job", etc. Even a couple of fake alligator tears. Bet the boys back at the shop really laughed about that one.
Fortunately, there were only scuff marks on the ends of the prop and the prop still tracked to within 1/16 and flew ok. Insurance didn't mean squat; there were no other props available and the wait time for Sensinich to build another was three months.
Nowdays the UPS guys use the stealth mode and infil packages without a sound or else ring the doorbell and run like a scalded dog.
Wanna see some more UPS performance?
How bout this one?
Still can't see any boot marks on this one.
Hey, I got a lots more, including:
a used microscope I got last winter had the mechanical stage knocked off of it and the cardboard container was like an old leather glove.
A surface height gage instrument came in all banged up. Luckily, it was inside a wooden case and the case took most of the breakage.
Take home lessons I learned:
1) I ain't buyin nothin' from Sensenich no more
2)UPS only cares about moving poundage. I beg every one who sends me something to not send it UPS. If everyone in my area who got beat up packages did this, maybe UPS would treat your stuff like it was their stuff.
Dave A.
6A airframe