Seair DHC-2 loses it's prop

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SpyPilot
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Seair DHC-2 loses it's prop

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PilotDAR
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Re: Seair DHC-2 loses it's prop

Post by PilotDAR »

Good job by the pilot safely force landing a plane which would have had a very aft C of G!
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sky's the limit
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Re: Seair DHC-2 loses it's prop

Post by sky's the limit »

Wow.... :shock:

Required: One new prop, and one new pilot's seat cushion... don't think they'll get that one back anytime soon.
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DonutHole
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Re: Seair DHC-2 loses it's prop

Post by DonutHole »

We all know what happens to carbon when put under immense pressure?

Check that pilots ass for a horsehoe encrusted in diamonds
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pelmet
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Re: Seair DHC-2 loses it's prop

Post by pelmet »

Interesting....I went for a ride on them a couple of months ago on a Beaver(C-GOBC). Flew by the "Lion's" mountain peaks over the mountains north of downtown and landed in Indian Arm. Great flight. The more pax you have, the lower the price. I waited until this was told to another guy and then approached and offered to be the second pax which would greatly lower the price for pax #1 as long as I could have the front seat. It makes the adventure much better, especially when it turned out that the back seat guy had no headset. He was kind of pissed off after the flight.

By the way, having flown De Havilland's before, whenever, I get a ride in one as a pax(which I have been doing for fun lately on layovers), I always check the flaps to make sure they are extended prior to takeoff(I always double checked while flying them as well). I have been told that you have a big problem if they are not extended when taking off. Quite a while back I did have one guy add power with the flaps still up. But when I mentioned the flaps being up.......as he extended them he said that he only extends them while on the step. Except he had extended them prior to being on the step on the earlier leg. But I am not an expert on such ops so there may be much more to the whole procedure than I am aware of.
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Siddley Hawker
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Re: Seair DHC-2 loses it's prop

Post by Siddley Hawker »

Somebody forgot to tighten the Jesus nut. :shock:
I'd like to buy that guy a beer or four, he deserves it.
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Last edited by Siddley Hawker on Tue Jun 25, 2013 5:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
linecrew
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Re: Seair DHC-2 loses it's prop

Post by linecrew »

This particular Beaver is the 1000th off the production line has had a rough go in the past according to this website...

http://www.dhc-2.com/id330.htm
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Bulawrench
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Re: Seair DHC-2 loses it's prop

Post by Bulawrench »

The pilot did an amazing job. The crankshaft broke,prop departed.
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Rowdy
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Re: Seair DHC-2 loses it's prop

Post by Rowdy »

pelmet wrote:Interesting....I went for a ride on them a couple of months ago on a Beaver(C-GOBC). Flew by the "Lion's" mountain peaks over the mountains north of downtown and landed in Indian Arm. Great flight. The more pax you have, the lower the price. I waited until this was told to another guy and then approached and offered to be the second pax which would greatly lower the price for pax #1 as long as I could have the front seat. It makes the adventure much better, especially when it turned out that the back seat guy had no headset. He was kind of pissed off after the flight.

By the way, having flown De Havilland's before, whenever, I get a ride in one as a pax(which I have been doing for fun lately on layovers), I always check the flaps to make sure they are extended prior to takeoff(I always double checked while flying them as well). I have been told that you have a big problem if they are not extended when taking off. Quite a while back I did have one guy add power with the flaps still up. But when I mentioned the flaps being up.......as he extended them he said that he only extends them while on the step. Except he had extended them prior to being on the step on the earlier leg. But I am not an expert on such ops so there may be much more to the whole procedure than I am aware of.
Theres a reason we dont have headsets for passengers now.. I cant tell you how many times I've watched people try to get out of the plane with them still attached! One lady almost strangled herself.. I mean jesus, they do it with the seatbelts in the center bench all the time too! Most people dont seem to care about the lack of headset, they just want the 'seaplane experience' or to 'see some glaciers and stuff' or 'I just like beavers'. (direct quotes from some of last weeks tours).

As for the flaps, there is no 'procedure' or 'SOP' for the use of flaps in a beaver on floats. We generally rely on flows as I'm sure you know. Some pump them down as they taxi off the dock, some right before they take off, some while on the step. I can tell you that without flaps, you'll be on the step for a long time, especially heavy! Then realize 'oh shit! I forgot flaps' and pump them down and she'll pop right off the water.

It was a super fortunate outcome for what could have been a tragic loss of life. One has to wonder what exactly lead up to this though. I've never heard of a prop coming off like that. Only of composite/wood props coming apart after a hit. Was it a casting defect in the hub/crank/prop? A maintenance whoopsie not caught during a walk around? A bird or prop strike? one of those totally random once in a lifetime occurrences? I'm sure it'll come out in the rumour mill here on the coast..
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Re: Seair DHC-2 loses it's prop

Post by iflyforpie »

Rumour mill is already saying it is a shaft failure.
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Carrier
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Re: Seair DHC-2 loses it's prop

Post by Carrier »

Quote: "I've never heard of a prop coming off like that."

http://www.pprune.org/african-aviation/ ... -c210.html

http://www.pprune.org/african-aviation/ ... 004-a.html

Props on other aircraft have departed due to the crankshaft breaking.
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snoopy
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Re: Seair DHC-2 loses it's prop

Post by snoopy »

How many hours out of overhaul was the engine, and who did the overhaul?
Cheers,
Kirsten B.
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Colonel Sanders
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Re: Seair DHC-2 loses it's prop

Post by Colonel Sanders »

Props on other aircraft have departed due to the crankshaft breaking
This is actually very common. I know of a guy
who was decapitated when the prop on his 450
stearman came down and cut his head off.

Many, many aerobatic pilots have lost a prop
in flight. Sean Tucker has a funny cockpit video,
he's teaching a woman acro, and WHANG the
prop is gone. He tells her:

"I've got good news and bad news. The bad
news is that we've lost the prop. The good news
is that you're flying with the best pilot in the
world"

And he proceeds to do a beautiful deadstick landing
with no prop, which I might add completely changes
the drag characteristics of the aircraft.

I think the TSB is suffering from a bit of cranial-rectal
inversion.

I probably don't know as much about breaking crankshafts
as the experts here, but everyone in the aerobatic
community knows that if you do maneuvers with high
rates of pitch or yaw (tailslides, torque rolls, tumbles,
aggressive spins) with a metal-blade prop, you will
break the crankshaft, sooner or later. The gyroscopic
loads are enormous. You pound the front bearing
shells into the crankcase halves. You can make the
hub fail, and have a blade depart the aircraft, which
causes the entire engine to depart the aircraft shortly
afterwards. Happened to a buddy of mine.
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Re: Seair DHC-2 loses it's prop

Post by Siddley Hawker »

How many hours out of overhaul was the engine, and who did the overhaul?
Cheers,
Kirsten B.
That was going to be my next question. :)
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SeptRepair
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Re: Seair DHC-2 loses it's prop

Post by SeptRepair »

Unless someone is making new crankshafts for the 985 ( havent worked on them in quite a few years), I think the questions should be how many hours are on that crankshaft since new.
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twistedoldwrench
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Re: Seair DHC-2 loses it's prop

Post by twistedoldwrench »

I know of a couple of instances with 985's where the crankshaft harmonic ballance weights siezed up, in both cases a powersection internal web was cracked, one was the front, the other was the back web, and were caught finding metal in the screen prior to complete engine failure. The interesting part of this was that both props had so impact tightened themself on the shaft, that we needed a 10 ft snipe and a BFH to get the prop nut undone from the shaft. Not something you can anticipate or predict, but just something I've seen in the past FWIW. All part of the aging/ fatigueing of parts problem with many older aircraft sad to say.
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Re: Seair DHC-2 loses it's prop

Post by Apollo »

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beaverbob
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Re: Seair DHC-2 loses it's prop

Post by beaverbob »

Siddley Hawker wrote:Somebody forgot to tighten the Jesus nut. :shock:
I'd like to buy that guy a beer or four, he deserves it.
Nobody forgot the Jesus nut. Otherwise the prop would have come off without shearing the crankshaft.
Terrific torsion to cause that failure.
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twistedoldwrench
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Re: Seair DHC-2 loses it's prop

Post by twistedoldwrench »

:shock: wow just saw picture on news of twisted crankshaft- and oh yah, no oil all over the place- obviously engine suddenly stopped rotating while the prop wanted to keep on going- so it did.
Good job on getting down safe.
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Rowdy
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Re: Seair DHC-2 loses it's prop

Post by Rowdy »

Thanks for that Colonel! Makes a lot of sense with all of the load imposed during aerobatic manoeuvres. However, I kind of doubt PCG was exposed to anything like that :wink:
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