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Whirlwind prop anomaly

Ron Lee

Ron Lee

Well Known Member
Non-RV aircraft. O-360 engine I believe. Whirlwind constant speed two blade prop.

Today was the first flight after engine rebuild and prop replacement from a prop strike.

On the ground chatting about aircraft stuff, it was noticed that one blade of the prop was very loose. It could be moved and inch or more fore aft and up/down.

Rings of some sort that apparently were under a metal portion of the blade or hub were OUTSIDE of that metal portion (no longer captured).

Root cause of the problem: unknown.

Airworthiness of the prop in that condition: plane is grounded.

Time on prop: Probably less than one hour since new.

Prop model: Unknown
 
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I did not see a model number. Whether this is an isolated event, a manufacturing/assembly issue, an issue not related to the prop, applicable to other prop of the same model and/or other models, etc will be up to the manufacturer to evaluate.
 
The prop is off the plane and gone. The chord (?) of the prop at the widest point was significant.

My apologies for not having additional info.
 
There were a number of service bulletins on the 200C model, which is what I'm guessing is the model you had the problems with. These service bulletins were issued between 2003 and 2005, and were not difficult to comply with, however, if the prop has been run for this long without the SBs being done, some interesting results might have occurred.

I have almost 1000 hours on my 200C without a lick of a problem.
 
Please read my initial post closely:

"Time on prop: Probably less than one hour since new."
 
Yow. My apologies.

I would be very interested to hear about the outcome, and the service you get from Bill Koleno and the rest of the guys at Titan (Whirlwind Aviation). My experiences have been top notch.
 
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