If you go to the next picture, you see a tiny bit of blood on the lower edge of the lower white stripe on the propeller. That might indicate he was struck by it, but I’m thinking a strike would have resulted in a lot more blood on the prop. Did he clean it before the pictures? If he didn’t, it really looks more like his injury was caused by something other than the prop hitting him. Like the prop hitting something that hit him.
ETA. That could be just the remains of a bug though. I don’t really know.
Um… not to be rude because I have a similar plane… But the mags are not connected to the strobe. That’s a separate switch. The mag switch is key operated.
It sounds to me like he flipped the master switch on which is located under the left seat. That turns the electrical buss on. If he left the stobes on then they would be powered.
The mags are self powered and are independent of the electrical system. They are always “live” unless grounded by the switch in the off position. That’s to ensure they work even if there is a power failure and a switch failure. If the mag switch was turned off and the engine fired then it’s not grounding properly which means the grounding wire broke or the connection corroded. This is why you always treat the engine as if the mags are on.
Looking at the picture I see an arc of black on the leading edge of the prop that would correspond to striking a round object. Was he wearing a hat at the time? The is more likely the mark I would expect. There wouldn’t be any blood on it because the wound wouldn’t have time to bleed at the point of impact unless it sliced through it. The mark on the prop is shiny on both sides of it as if contact was made from an object. If it was a bug it would continue along the plane of the arc and not curve and there wouldn’t be a shiny path on either side of the trajectory.
Nope, watched him do it. Turned the key, strobe came on. I know nothing though so I’m only going by what I saw.
The prop my have been sprayed off when the fire rescue crew hosed the blood out of the hangar, I don’t really know. And he often wears a baseball cap, but I don’t really know. I didn’t get one back with his shredded & bloody clothes, and I didn’t see one in the hangar so…?
Still, it’s kind of an impressive mark - (shudder)
I’m only bringing this up because this is a serious issue. The strobes have no relation to the mag switch. Strobes are on an electrical circuit. The mags are self powered with no connection to the plane’s electrical system. No voltage goes to them.
Please understand I’m not trying to argue a point. I’m trying to convey that it’s possible your plane’s magneto switch is bad and it’s always live which is a very dangerous situation which can lead to unplanned starts.
Sorry, I shouldn’t make light of a serious situation but I thought it wasn’t too totally out of bounds. I hope your husband is feeling better now and recovering nicely.
ETA: Really, I hope you don’t take my lame post poorly. It’s just that I’ve never seen ‘magneto’ and ‘titanium’ in the same group of paragraphs before and I couldn’t help myself.
The last time I went flying with a buddy I was still in the plane after shut down when I hear the impulse coupler snap over. He got out and had moved the prop to connect the tow bar. I look up to see the key still turned to “both” and got that “eeeeeeiiiiiiiii” feeling up my spine. Fortunately he treats the engine as if it’s live but it still gave me the willies.
:eek:
I am not sure I could refrain from getting on a soapbox. :smack:
But I have never ‘peed’ on an electric fence either. :rolleyes:
I have no problem with learning from others on most things.
If you heard the impulse coupling he rotated the engine forwards. IOW, he did two things wrong. And he didn’t treat the engine as live; he treated it with abject ignorance for the risk to his own life.
He was just a tiny whiff of fuel fumes away from joining at best the OP’s husband and at worst the choir eternal.
And that’s the error. ALWAYS rotate the engine backwards. That prevents the impulse coupling from firing. Rotating the engine forwards is how you start it. Which is the opposite of your goal when handling the prop for ALL other purposes.
Does not hurt valves. Aircraft engine cams are not wild enough for slow turns backwards to damage them.
A full 180° backward rotation will do so little damage to the dry vacuum pump, if any, that it is a non starter when compared to the danger of the impulse coupling kicking an inadvertently hot mag through a spark point.
That’s not true of all aircraft engines but probably true with the Lycoming. You don’t want to do that to Rotax engines as it can draw air into the oiling system.
I don’t know if you’ve ever rebuilt a dry vacuum motor but the graphite vanes are set up to move in one direction only and are fragile.
You’re right that it’s dangerous to move the prop and that’s why I brought up the warning about mag switches not grounding properly on shutoff. But I move the prop as if I’m starting it.
You’d be surprised at how many people can’t look at a prop and tell which way it’s supposed to turn.
