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1. 12:47 AM - Re: Getting caught off guard, a life and death issue (Didier BLOUZARD)
2. 07:13 AM - Re: Getting caught off guard, a life and death issue (barryhancock)
3. 01:53 PM - Re: Re: Getting caught off guard, a life and death issue (Didier Blouzard)
Message 1
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| Subject: | Re: Getting caught off guard, a life and death issue |
Very very impressive
Particularly when reading your experience of risk management.
This brings me to enhance two points:
1) amazingly, whatever experience we have in aeronautic the risks are the same
2) when there is anything unusual we have to raise the attention and search for
the reason
Nothing is irrelevant.
Thanks a lot for sharing
Didier Blouzard
+33 6 2424 3672
Le 25 sept. 2010 01:20, CHRIS ABBOTT <cabbott@dragnet.com.au> a crit :
> Guys.
>
> Cant help but to comment, whilst best practices are always good, all accidents
are a sequence of events that until lined up may never happen!
>
> My story goes this way, I have a yak 52 built 1990 VH-YAV, am an avid pilot (390hrs
and 98 in type), Drag racer (2007 championship winner HD Destroyer 9.38sec
147mph ) Flat track racer (HD XR 750, good mates and raced with Jay Springsteen),
a Scuba instructor (wreck, deep 60m+ with over 2000 dives logged) and
in excess of 20 years of experience monitoring and teaching safety around construction
and heavy equipment, ridden motorcycles 1.1 million kilometers including
one trip around the world, to base camp tibetan side, seen war in lebanon
"85", Sahara desert, look if it had horsepower, speed and calculated danger i
was into it. Farm raised, a mechanic and tekkie for some 32 years I am very fastidious
about maintenance, build all my race engines and do all my setups so
my yak starts extremely easily!
>
> My sequence of events go this way : - Some 18 months prior to getting in the
way of the prop i had treatment for cancer and subsequent chemo, with this a couple
of business worries and a foggy head! during the whole 18 month period of
treatment and recovery i had to attend to business (partner rip off problems),
this left me with a "busy mind".
> At midday on April 4th 2008, even though the night before we had a late one (tired
but not hung over) i dragged the yak out to take a client for a "deal clincher",
done my normal pre flight and noticed that both the battery and air was
a little low during this i received an argumentative phone call from a previous
supplier of the business, after i sat for a while to try to calm down, a
short time had elapsed and i felt ready to go ahead, primed the engine, jumped
in the cockpit to fire it up and taxi to the fuel bowser, whilst even though
it started easily with the low air and battery it stopped quickly ! this then
lead to the sequence that would end in tears, i was concerned that if i just primed
and tried starting on the air it would not have enough to pull the fuel
through so i jumped out to pull through by hand and to conserve air, looked back
to do a check "mags off etc" and reverted to my instinct of turning things
anti clock ways for "off" and subsequently turned the mags on, the little voice
told me this was incorrect but i assured myself it wasn't (no glasses didn't
check the numbers), slid over the front of the wing to make it quicker (didn't
touch the prop!) checked the oil drain to make sure that it was closed (once
again didn't touch the prop) looked at the prop, it was at approximately the
1:35 position, made the decision to pull it down to a position where i could get
to it easily, i stepped in and reached under the blade rather than lift the
lower blade (quicker this was the final sequence that would see me in and out
of surgery for the next couple of years), as as soon as i touched it it immediately
fired backwards for about 3 blades (fortunately as this pushed me back)
then jumped into a very nice fast forward idle striking my arms and legs as i
tried getting out of the way.
> The sequence of events that lined up were as follows
>
> Tired.
> Busy Brain.
> Distracted by phone call.
> Low air (start solenoid was partially activated).
> Low battery (shower of sparks remained active).
> In a hurry and happy to accept the low air and battery.
> Compromised standing position and sequence for pulling through.
>
> The engrained safety in me saved a much worse incident as i had applied the brake,
turned on the air and never once placed my head or the core of my body in
a position of rotating danger.
>
> Hope this helps to keep the sequences out of sync and a sense of what can happen
when distracted (couple of photos attached to remind)
>
> <IMG_0208.jpg>
> <IMG_0205.jpg>
> <P4280039.jpg>
>
>
> Thankyou
>
> Chris Abbott
>
>
> On 24/09/2010, at 4:38 PM, Didier Blouzard wrote:
>
> Indeed,
>
> it is easy to make a mistake......yes and no!!!
> In the world of safety, there are always multiples factors leading you to a risk.
> So if there is one point of procedure not usual, question yourself and find the
reason before going further.
> But mainly youcan get away of a lot of risk by following procedures.
> Because following procedures let your mind plenty of time to take in account
the unpredictable events.
>
> We have the luck to have a few people on this list giving us good procedures
so read them, make them yours and apply them systematicaly.
>
> For hand starting .... I have never read any procedure.... just a few : "pull
and stay away of the blade" .
>
> I've heard some of the good eastern mechanic say that they start with a rope
(a buckle over one blade) in order to avoid being in front or close to the prop.
>
> So apply procedures and be safe....well...safer!!!
>
>
> Didier
>
>
> 2010/9/23 <sajdds@comcast.net>
> Given how easy it is to make a mistake or to have the mag cutoff fail what is
the correct way to hold and to swing a prop? I would also be interested in knowing
the safest way to hand start the M14P.
>
> Steve Johnson
> Yak-52 N9900X
> 0B5
> 413 522-1130 Cell
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "barryhancock" <bhancock@worldwidewarbirds.com>
> To: yak-list@matronics.com
> Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2010 3:00:51 PM
> Subject: Yak-List: Getting caught off guard, a life and death issue
>
>
> Gang,
>
> I had an experience recently that I would like to share with you. First, I want
to give you some background, both because many of you don't know me, and I
think it's relevant to the issue at hand.
>
> I have had the good fortune to fly Yaks and CJs for over 10 years now. I have
~2000 hrs. of PIC time, mostly in warbirds. For the past several years I have
been current in the following aircraft: CJ-6, Yak-50, L-39, and Lancair Legacy.
For the past 3 years my CJ and Yak flying time has been more limited due
to work and my constant commuting back and forth from Utah to Chino in the Lancair,
but I've still managed about 300 hrs./year all combined. In the past few
months we have had 3 different ground up restoration CJs get completed and
delivered. Part of that process is test flying the freshly restored airplanes,
which definitely gets your attention as a pilot. Included in this has been
a lot of adjustments with the engine, which necessitates a lot of starting, stopping,
tweaking, starting, etc. A lot of in and out of the cockpit. Well, one
day, I got lazy.....
>
> On a CJ that I had literally started over a dozen times over the period of several
days between test flights, prop governor adjustments, electronic engine
monitoring tweaks, etc., I was all set for another test flight. Preflight complete,
pulled through, primed and ready, I hit the start button. The engine had
been starting flawlessly, so when it didn't start after a few blades I stopped
and reprimed. A few more blades and nothing. A few more start attempts...nothing.
I decided to get out and start over. So I unstrapped, got out and started
to pull the prop through....on the second blade the engine coughed and
then roared to life. When it coughed I knew what was coming and jumped out of
the way. My guess is the engine was turning about 1400 RPM....no chocks, no
brake strap...and it started rolling. In the blink of an eye I spun out of the
way and reacted. I knew what was at stake...get the plane stopped quickly or
this brand new restoration as going to tear into a h!
> angar down the row.
>
> As the plane was rolling towards me, I got clear of the prop arc and tried to
jump up on the front of the wing. My timing was a little off and the wing hit
me right in the side of the hip (the bruise still shows 2 months later). Luckily,
I landed on my feet. I knew at this point with the plane accelerating
that I had one last chance. Simultaneously back peddling and planting to jump
up, I grabbed ahold of the canopy rail, pulled myself up, reached in and grabbed
the brake handle with my right hand and killed the mags with my left. Where
the plane stopped there had been a Piper Cherokee sticking out of it's hangar
about 30 minutes before. Another 20 feet further and the wingtip would have
grabbed a hangar door and spun the airplane into that hangar with the prop at
something above idle. It would have been ugly.
>
> What would have been uglier is my body splattered all over that ramp. I reacted
to the situation and luckily things came out OK. I can't count on that luck
if it were to happen again. And neither can you.....
>
> So, here are the main things I've learned from this and hopefully you can learn
by reading, and not from your own similar event.
>
> 1) Familiarity breeds complacency. I had done this so many times recently (and
always with the airplane chocked when we were tweaking) I neglected to follow
the golden rules: Mags OFF, Throttle IDLE, Parking Brake Set. Any of these
three make for a much less exciting event. It only takes one time getting
complacent to have a really bad day.
>
> 2) Just because you are current, doesn't mean you are proficient. While I had
about 10 hours of CJ flying in the last couple of months prior to this, I fly
a variety of stuff so my habits for the CJ isn't what it used to be when I
flew them almost exclusively. When things got out of the routine, I needed to
stop and double check everything.
>
> 3) No matter what, follow the golden rules for pulling through the prop. 1)
Mags off, 2) throttle idle, and 3) parking brake (in the case of the CJ, a velcro
strap) in place.
>
> I got lucky. I could have turned into prop-sui. I could have gotten someone
else hurt. The plane could have been destroyed. Lots of other bad things were
possible. Honestly, it was my athleticism that saved me...not something I'd
like to count on again, and something that left guys like Pappy a few years
ago. ;)- The other thing that saved me was proper technique on pulling the prop
through. One thing I have in my head is to treat that prop like a loaded
gun. I see guys that get their body in the prop arc when pulling blades through
and it makes me cringe. Had I done that, I likely would not be writing this.
>
> Things go well for so long we sometimes forget how narrow the line is between
fun and death in this business. I remember now...and hopefully you do to.
>
> Happy Flying!
>
> Barry
>
> --------
> Barry Hancock
> Worldwide Warbirds, Inc.
> (909) 606-4444
> www.worldwidewarbirds.com
>
>
>
>
> Read this topic online here:
>
> http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=313411#313411_p; &n===================
>
>
>
>
>
> et="_blank">http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?Yak-List
> tp://forums.matronics.com
> _blank">http://www.matronics.com/contribution
>
>
>
>
> --
> Didier BLOUZARD
> didier.blouzard@gmail.com
> 0624243672
>
>
>
>
Message 2
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| Subject: | Re: Getting caught off guard, a life and death issue |
Didier,
That was my main point....the prop doesn't know/care whether you have 200 hours
or 20,000 hours. Nor does the ground or anything else. Hopefully we've all
be flying a lot this summer, and hopefully we take the time to step back and make
sure we are not getting complacent!
Barry
--------
Barry Hancock
Worldwide Warbirds, Inc.
(909) 606-4444
www.worldwidewarbirds.com
Read this topic online here:
http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=313696#313696
Message 3
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| Subject: | Re: Getting caught off guard, a life and death issue |
Thanks BArry,
At least all these stories of getting caught by the prop will have an effect
on my procedures for turning the prop.
Yesterday I was turning the blade without thinking to a potential starting,
without brakes and without chokes.
Now I will beware of the prop and turn it like a loaded gun, put the chokes
and if I can't put the chokes, at least systematicaly put the air and
parking brakes (on my 18T) before turning the prop.
This will be my new procedure
Thanks a lot for that.
Kind regards
Didier
2010/9/25 barryhancock <bhancock@worldwidewarbirds.com>
> bhancock@worldwidewarbirds.com>
>
> Didier,
>
> That was my main point....the prop doesn't know/care whether you have 200
> hours or 20,000 hours. Nor does the ground or anything else. Hopefully
> we've all be flying a lot this summer, and hopefully we take the time to
> step back and make sure we are not getting complacent!
>
> Barry
>
> --------
> Barry Hancock
> Worldwide Warbirds, Inc.
> (909) 606-4444
> www.worldwidewarbirds.com
>
>
> Read this topic online here:
>
> http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=313696#313696
>
>
--
Didier BLOUZARD
didier.blouzard@gmail.com
0624243672
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