Rex aircraft losses a prop mid-flight

[red750]

Rex has announced they are grounding all SAAB 340 aircraft of the series involved in the loss of propeller.

 

Rex grounds planes after propeller falls off aircraft mid-flight

 

 

[planedriver]

Still plenty flying over my place Red. I understand they have grounded some with the same batch of gearbox shafts and are undergoing close inspection.

 

Many of those aircraft would have knocked up a considerable number of hours by now and have done stirling service given the mainly short routes they have operated over. They look like a two engined Viscount to me, but with less whine.

 

I'm very close to the airport, so hope their fans keep running as I've just plant a whole batch of petunias and don't want them disturbed!

 

 

[Bats]

Another report said that an additional 5 had been grounded, over and above the damaged aircraft. 2 of them are Pel-Air freighters.

 

 

[red750]

Still plenty flying over my place Red.

Grounding the plane involved plus 5 others out of a fleet of 55.

 

(Sorry Bats, you beat me to it - busy cooking dinner and taking care of a little emergency.)

 

 

[dutchroll]

Dutch are sure you haven't got your east and west befuddled?

Yeah I was hoping no-one would notice given that the discovery was made after the edit time had passed.

But you've blown my cover!

 

 

[planedriver]

Never mind, we still love your very informative posts.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Yeah I was hoping no-one would notice given that the discovery was made after the edit time had passed.But you've blown my cover!

...it's okey, I just hope you're not ambidextrous like my wife. It has its advantages but lacking a dominant side she's bloody hopeless at navigating.

 

 

[dutchroll]

Yeah we don't refer to them as "east" and "west" anyway. It's just "the main runway" and "the parallel", or occasionally "the cross runway".

 

Gotta remember - even airline pilots' minds are simple!

 

 

[octave]

Rex propeller found in Sydney bushland

[VoodooForce]

Not sure if this has been noted but the prop was found The link on the front page mentioned a "crime scene"

 

 

[spacesailor]

The "crime scene" is to keep us aviation enthusiast out.

 

Would look great on any forum members wall!.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[dutchroll]

Not sure if this has been noted but the prop was found The link on the front page mentioned a "crime scene"

Yeah crime scene powers basically allow the cops to stop Rec Flying Forum members sneaking in and taking souvenirs like prop blades or the spinner for their pool room. Not unreasonable.

 

 

[red750]

It doesn't have to be a crime o be declared a crime scene. Simply means an exclusion zone marked off with blue and white tape. Prevents contamination of the scene pending an investigation. If your heater sets your house on fire, it's declared a crime scene to allow investigators to do their job.

 

 

[BLA82]

I think i need to take up bushwalking

 

 

[flying dog]

So really, the initial report that the prop fell off near Camden is a lie.

 

I summise that the initial problem happened there and the prop fell off over Revesby.

 

I know/accept the pilot may not have seen the actual separation, but it is strange that it was incorrectly reported to when/where it fell off.

 

Though, if the pilot feathered the prop and had the engine shut down, I am a bit interested in HOW it fell off.

 

The air pressue would be the same on all the blades.

 

Granted turning or descending would not help.

 

However, at that point, when it did fall off, wouldnt the pilot have felt the change in the planes dynamics?

 

And so it should have been known where to look.

 

 

[spacesailor]

Bla82

 

I did in NZ, and found the remains of a Australian bomber that ran out of fuel & crashed, Took photo's of the engine & its ID tag & the result was "they got lost, made ever bigger circles, then ran out of fuel"

 

They were in contact by radio with Wellington control tower until the end.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[dutchroll]

My understanding is that it came off as, or very shortly after, he feathered it for an engine problem and in the photo of the prop in bushland the blades are clearly in the feathered position.

 

The last thing he would've thought of as they realised it had detached would be marking the position.

 

When I was test flying a C130 in the Richmond training area one day, we were re-starting an engine we had shutdown & feathered as part of the test. As I held the lever in "airstart" to unfeather it something malfunctioned and it decoupled from the reduction gearbox with the blades at a fine angle and being driven by the airflow, resulting in a huge overspeed off the tach scale. The noise and vibration was horrendous though there was very little yaw. We fair crapped our pants as we thought it was going to tear itself off the wing. If it had, I doubt any of us would've thought to pinpoint the exact position. Even if we did, what are the ballistics of a detached spinning propeller travelling forward at 3 or 4 nm per minute while falling under gravity from 6000 or 7000 ft?

 

 

[Bats]

So really, the initial report that the prop fell off near Camden is a lie.I summise that the initial problem happened there and the prop fell off over Revesby.

 

.

A lie as in "untruth designed to mislead"? Pretty bold statement to make and I fail to understand what the crew would gain by it. Been reading Ben Sandilands' flights of fancy by any chance?

 

 

[spacesailor]

Probably to stop the enthusiast from doing a runner with said 100kilo prop.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[pmccarthy]

Its no big deal. I remember the front end of a ship fell off in the sea near Perth once. Just as inconvenient.

 

 

[spacesailor]

Wouldn't be the one that's dumped in the Hawkesbury river by any chance, the bow is under the Sydney Harbor bridge, the stern's near Parramatta.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[planedriver]

For sure, but if you or I were in that situation we'd obviously be very busy up front, and our priority would be to get all on board back down safely rather than worrying about whose tomato crop we were going to flatten with the bits that fall off. That's probably of secondary importance, even if we'd all like to know exactly where it fell.

 

PS Sorry, I missed a couple of posts

 

 

[ben87r]

So really, the initial report that the prop fell off near Camden is a lie.I summise that the initial problem happened there and the prop fell off over Revesby.

 

I know/accept the pilot may not have seen the actual separation, but it is strange that it was incorrectly reported to when/where it fell off.

 

Though, if the pilot feathered the prop and had the engine shut down, I am a bit interested in HOW it fell off.

 

The air pressue would be the same on all the blades.

 

Granted turning or descending would not help.

 

However, at that point, when it did fall off, wouldnt the pilot have felt the change in the planes dynamics?

 

And so it should have been known where to look.

It was found about 2 min flight time from where it was expected to be.....

 

 

[BLA82]

You can hear it now,

 

Engine failure checklist.

 

Fuel CHECK

 

Feather CHECK.

 

Street Address, HANG ON A SEC I WILL GET THE TOM TOM:beg:

 

 

[cooperplace]

...it's okey, I just hope you're not ambidextrous like my wife. It has its advantages but lacking a dominant side she's bloody hopeless at navigating.

my wife's not ambidextrous but still can't navigate