From: cdenk@ix.netcom.com Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 11:25:47 -0500 (CDT) Subject: COZY: Flight Story Saturday noon, my wife and I left our home airport, flew an hour to Bradford, Penn, where we had a nice lunch. The object of the flight was to explore the West end of the St. Lawrence Seaway, in particular the thousand islands area for a future vacation destination, by airport hopping along the way. 2nd stop was Waterville, New York, where we fueled. The line boy suggested Maxson Airport (A private 4000' paved strip, at Alexandria Bay, New York (the center of tourism for the Thousand Islands). As we departed Watertown, I remarked to my wife, this is the smoothest runway, I had ever taken off from. We flew North and then East over the St. Lawrence River at 1300' (1000' AGL) taking in the sights. Over the Thousand Islands Bridge, a light vibration appeared, Rpm and airspeed were down. A check of both mags, CHT's and EGT's (I have an ultimate scanner with temps for all cylinders) indicated normal parameters. Maxson airport was 2 miles South, and my wife had it in sight. A normal pattern an landing, and still don't have any idea what the problem is, if there is one as taxiing in. After stopping and walking around I saw a 22 inch lengthwise crack in the one prop blade. Several good sized nicks and some embedded tar told the story of the cause. We had picked up a stone at Watertown, and it took 10 minutes of flying for the crack to progress enough to become evident. Several phone calls, the daughter was lined up to open the house to get the spare propeller, and a friend with a Mooney MSE to transport the prop to us. The prop was delivered 12:30PM Sunday, and we landed a home airport at 4PM after a smooth ride at 10,500' with 45K quartering headwinds. The flight following controller near Rochester, New York, was Bill Kastenholtz (a MKIV builder near home) (NEAT). Local people provided transportation, found a fellow that repairs antique boats (the 1930's teak Cris Craft speed boat variety) that had West Epoxy. Glued the prop together, with the intentions of adding 2 plys BID the next day, as a backup plan if we couldn't get a good prop delivered. While I was gluing, wife got a motel room. Ride brought her back, I was done and got ride to down town and a nice dinner followed by sitting on a park bench watching the river boats. Very nice time considering. Moral to the story, always have a spare prop handy. This was not the fault of the prop, but the pusher configuration. Thinking about redesigning wheel pants and adding Nose fender to minimize prop debris. From: cdenk@ix.netcom.com Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 11:33:41 -0500 (CDT) Subject: COZY: Prop damage info wanted As a result of loosing a 3rd prop to debris damage, I would like to know others experiences: If you have or have not (maybe I can detect a trend of what works) had prop damage answer the following questions: 1: What was your damage? 2: When first detected (on ground, how long in the air)? 3: Tire sizes (mains and Nose)? 4: Do you have a nose wheel fender, if so describe? 5: Main gear wheel pants (describe)? 6: Do the main wheels project below the wheel (not tires), how much? 7: With the airframe level, what is the distance from the floor to the bottom of the pants? 8: Comments?? Thanks Carl... Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 13:54:11 -0400 (EDT) From: Nigel Field Subject: Re: COZY: Prop damage info wanted At 11:33 AM 9/7/98 -0500, Carl wrote: >As a result of loosing a 3rd prop to debris damage, I would like to know others experiences: >If you have or have not (maybe I can detect a trend of what works) had prop damage answer the >following questions: > > >8: Comments?? > Try conducting your take-off roll with the landing brake deployed until after rotation, thats what I do on dirty RWs and havent had any damage since, it makes a great stone guard. The RW debris that hits your prop is kicked up by the nosewheel not the mains. If you don't have enough power to do this then consider a Subaru :-) Nigel Field From: "Nat Puffer" Subject: Re: COZY: Prop damage info wanted Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 13:12:38 -0500 Carl, I flew a Varieze from 1978 to 1982, around 400 hours, a Cozy prototype III from 1982 to 1988, probably about 400 hours (and Gene Davis subsequently flew it for 150 hours), a Cozy Mark IV feasibility model from 1988 to 1992, around 400 hours, and a Mark IV plans model from 1992 to present (now about 450 hours). All were pushers with wood props. I have always had wheel pants (after break in). I never had any prop damage until 1995, when I picked up an AN bolt off a dirty taxiway at Chino (but only because I used a burst of throttle when I shouldn't have), and then 2 years later when a cowling screw came loose (I probably hadn't tightened it) and left its impression on my prop. In both cases I filled the dents with 5-min. flox, and I am still flying the same propellor (a Performance 3-blade). I never had a fender on my nosewheel, and I never take off with the landing brake down, because the engine rapidly overheats. Unless my experience changes drastically, I will not change the way I operate. Regards, Nat ---------- > From: cdenk@ix.netcom.com > To: jschuber@juno.com; cozy_builders@canard.com > Subject: COZY: Prop damage info wanted > Date: Monday, September 07, 1998 11:33 AM > > As a result of loosing a 3rd prop to debris damage, I would like to know others experiences: > If you have or have not (maybe I can detect a trend of what works) had prop damage answer the > following questions: > > 1: What was your damage? > > > 2: When first detected (on ground, how long in the air)? > > > 3: Tire sizes (mains and Nose)? > > > 4: Do you have a nose wheel fender, if so describe? > > > 5: Main gear wheel pants (describe)? > > > 6: Do the main wheels project below the wheel (not tires), how much? > > > 7: With the airframe level, what is the distance from the floor to the bottom of the pants? > > > 8: Comments?? > > > > > > Thanks Carl... >