REFLECTOR:Keeping the ! out of Expensive Propellers

[Chuck Jensen]

I assume the tarred aggregate is what we refer to as a "stabilized surface";
kind of half way between a hard gravel road and asphalt.  Basically pea
gravel with tar incorporated and rolled.  An excellent and inexpensive road
for cars but allows a lot of aggregate to be dislodged which becomes coarse
sandpaper for the prop.  Things to do?

1.	See if they will put a seal coat on the runway and ramp after using
a tractor boom to remove as much of the loose materials as possible.  Of
course, if you are eating up MT props, pretty soon you could afford to seal
coat it yourself.

2.	If they won't seal coat it, at least see if they will run over it
with a street sweeper to remove as much of the loose materials as possible.

3.	During taxi use the absolute minimum of power; not easy with the
differential braking.  During take off, apply the power very slowly
(assuming you have lots of runway) to avoid creating a 200 hp vacuum cleaner
which sucks up all the pebbles and rocks into the prop.

4.	On landing, always turn the engine off 1-2 miles out and dead-stick
it in.

I'm unaware of any real design things you can do.  You can minimize it by
how you operate the engine/prop on the ground but that's about it.

Finally, if you prefer to continue replacing just props instead of the whole
airplane, #4 can best be discounted.

Chuck
27GV

P.S. Since I don't have extensive legal fees budgeted for the current fiscal
year, please ignore #4!!!!





-----Original Message-----
From: reflector-admin@tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-admin@tvbf.org]On
Behalf Of Greg Poole
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2003 4:41 AM
To: reflector@tvbf.org
Cc: Leon Howe
Subject: REFLECTOR:Keeping the ! out of Expensive Propellers


G'Day All,

.....Still waiting in the wings down here looking for clear evidence of
success of established means for keeping rocks etc out of pusher propellers.
Despite all precautions, have all but trashed two MT propellers for 40 hours
use in the XL we built down here.  As previously indicated, when you
amortise the cost of a prop. this makes landings very expensive!  (most
strips down here are tarred aggregate rather than concrete).

The owner of the XL  - Leon Howe, has asked me to again ask for what any of
you blokes have done to get around this - diagrams, pictures, descriptions -
all accepted without complaint!

Kind regards,

Greg in Sydney.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "steve korney" <s_korney@hotmail.com>
To: <reflector@tvbf.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2003 5:02 AM
Subject: Re: AW: REFLECTOR:Help me buy a house...on an airport


> Landing on a airport that is less then 3000 ft. long is not a good idea in
a
> Velocity...If you are an experienced pilot with lots of confidence then
OK,
> try it...But, I for one would caution anyone who tries to be very careful
> about brakes, nose gear, main gear, debris on strip, density altitude,
strip
> condition, on and on...These aircraft are not designed for short field
take
> offs and landings...
>
> My $.02
>
> Your mileage WILL vary...
>
>
>
> Best... Steve
>
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