Tractor roll over video

[drizler]

Story time!? (Maybe it's own thread?)

Yea, I just gotta know how you can fold a prop?? Stick it in the dirt maybe, I致e seen that done and it tosses a beautiful dirt clod like Duffer Dan The golfer. Inquiring minds gotta know......

 

[CincyFlyer]

Yea, I just gotta know how you can fold a prop?? Stick it in the dirt maybe, I致e seen that done and it tosses a beautiful dirt clod like Duffer Dan The golfer. Inquiring minds gotta know......

It was actually quite a common "fender bender" sort of airplane accident; I was flying in very gusty winds, and got a 30-kt crosswind gust upon landing at RZT. It lifted up the left wing, which put the right wingtip onto the runway (slow Cessnas have zero roll authority, I should have come in hot with no flaps) and then the pivoted the prop into the tarmac. Rather costly. It folded over both prop tips, and put a nice curve into the thing. I still have it in the corner of my music room. It was nearly two decades ago.

 

[MossRoad]

I've seen a couple dozen bent props in just 6 years working at 2 different airports. In almost every case, the engine was toast after that. It usually damages the crankshaft. One time I actually saw it happen. Guy in a Mooney bashed his prop on the runway, somehow managed to add power and do a go around. Came in and 2" were bent back. Most of the other ones were from people that forgot to put their landing gear down. It happens more often than you'd think.

 

[shaeff]

It was actually quite a common "fender bender" sort of airplane accident; I was flying in very gusty winds, and got a 30-kt crosswind gust upon landing at RZT. It lifted up the left wing, which put the right wingtip onto the runway (slow Cessnas have zero roll authority, I should have come in hot with no flaps) and then the pivoted the prop into the tarmac. Rather costly. It folded over both prop tips, and put a nice curve into the thing. I still have it in the corner of my music room. It was nearly two decades ago.
View attachment 540520

Yikes, sounds like a pucker moment for sure. Glad you made it out alright, even though you consider it a "fender bender."

I've seen a couple dozen bent props in just 6 years working at 2 different airports. In almost every case, the engine was toast after that. It usually damages the crankshaft. One time I actually saw it happen. Guy in a Mooney bashed his prop on the runway, somehow managed to add power and do a go around. Came in and 2" were bent back. Most of the other ones were from people that forgot to put their landing gear down. It happens more often than you'd think.

Crazy!

 

[MossRoad]

We used to have a Fox Photo (anyone remember actual camera film?) processing plant here in town. They contracted a few small planes and pilots.

You'd drop your film off at a Fox Photo location, they'd stuff all the day's orders into in a canvas bag or two, drive it to an airport, and these little planes would fly in, pick up the bags, and hop from town to town all over the midwest. Then they'd end up here in South Bend, IN. The stuff would get developed overnight, and in the morning, the pilots would revers their course.

Anyhow, they were typically young pilots wanting to build hours for their commercial licenses, instruments, and in some cases, twin engine licenses. Well, many of these guys were your typical fly-boys, bomber jackets and Ray Bans, and seemed they'd have a different girl with them every week along for the ride. So, several of theses guys, for whatever reason (keep your mile-high club comments to yourself), would forget to put the landing gear down and skid the planes in on the runway.

I was on call a lot, so I'd get a call from airport security to come in and tow a plane off the runway. I'd drive in, hop on the tug, get my security escort and we'd head out the taxiway. It was kind of comical....

You'd make the turn from the taxiway onto the runway, and as you get closer to all the emergency vehicles, you see a white streak on the runway that quickly faded to silver right up to a plane sitting on its belly....

That was the white paint getting ground off before it turned to aluminum! :laughing:

And the props were always bent back a foot or so.

You'd look around at all the people, and there'd be the guy in the bomber jacket standing there with his hands in his pants pockets looking at the ground, and one time in particular, 5-6 firemen talking to a cute girl in a rabbit fur jacket. :laughing:

So they'd stuff air bags under the wings, lift it with CO2 tanks, install cribbing, lift, cribbing, repeat, until the plane was high enough to deploy the landing gear. Then they'd say "Your turn, flyboy." and the pilot would get in and put the gear down. Then they'd remove the cribbing and bags, and I'd hook up to the nose wheel and tow him in. He had to sit in the plane for the ride of shame back to the ramp.... the girl rode in the firetruck.

 

[CincyFlyer]

I've seen a couple dozen bent props in just 6 years working at 2 different airports. In almost every case, the engine was toast after that. It usually damages the crankshaft. One time I actually saw it happen. Guy in a Mooney bashed his prop on the runway, somehow managed to add power and do a go around. Came in and 2" were bent back. Most of the other ones were from people that forgot to put their landing gear down. It happens more often than you'd think.

Oddly, they put a dial indicator on the crank, and it was perfect; however, the insurance company said that if we wanted to have the engine torn down, they'd pay for it, so we did.
I paid for rings and bearings, was worth it! They even paid for the airplane that I rented to fly a new prop 100 miles to the other airport.

 

[MossRoad]

Oddly, they put a dial indicator on the crank, and it was perfect; however, the insurance company said that if we wanted to have the engine torn down, they'd pay for it, so we did.
I paid for rings and bearings, was worth it! They even paid for the airplane that I rented to fly a new prop 100 miles to the other airport.

Nice! :thumbsup:

 

[BrokenTrack]

Of all the tractors I have ever drove, and all the years I have done so, I only flopped one over and it was last year.

I was plowing ground with my little Kubota Tractor and came around a corner next to a fence on a pretty steep incline. My front wheel came out of the furrow, so I turned the wheel back into the furrow and when it did, over the tractor went!

But it was the slowest roll over ever. I literally just stepped off the tractor as it went over. Not a jump, not a bail, just a simple, steppppp...and I was off, and it was over on its side.

Luckily I had the skidder right there so I just winched it back over. The whole thing made me laugh then, and now in re-telling it.