{"id":2319,"date":"2013-10-10T12:03:24","date_gmt":"2013-10-10T19:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.mechadigital.net\/?p=2319"},"modified":"2021-08-26T20:37:57","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T20:37:57","slug":"83-propwash-parking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/83-propwash-parking\/","title":{"rendered":"# 83 Propwash and Parking"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m gonna cover a couple of subjects here:\u00a0 The etiquette of prop wash management and proper parking technique.\u00a0\u00a0 You may ask what they have to do with each other.\u00a0 You\u2019ll find out.<\/p>\n

Our mothers and fathers taught us manners.\u00a0 They taught us how to play well with others.\u00a0 They taught us to have a firm handshake and to look someone in the eye when we take that proffered paw.\u00a0 Occasionally I meet someone who looks away when they shake my hand.\u00a0 That\u2019s okay, but their mother and father obviously missed that one.<\/p>\n

Similarly, our early flight instructors, whether they knew it or not, acted en loco parentis<\/i> during early flight training and SHOULD have made sure that we understand some of the etiquette of aviation.\u00a0 Perhaps the most important is management of our prop blast.\u00a0 A thoughtful airman absolutely never directs his prop blast in a direction that can disturb someone else.\u00a0 He never blasts other airplanes on the ramp.\u00a0 He never blows dirt into an open hangar.\u00a0 Sure, it\u2019s sometimes difficult to see what\u2019s behind you, but it\u2019s always appropriate to know what\u2019s there and to avoid any undue prop blasting.<\/p>\n

\"Prospect<\/a>
What do you want to bet that none of these experienced aviators made ANYONE mad when they maneuvered their planes into these parking spots (hey, what’s that Trike doing in there?).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I think I got the lecture early in my training and have always thought that I was \u201cwell brought-up\u201d in that area.\u00a0 But I did forget once.\u00a0 While doing an airshow in Arizona, I inadvertently blasted the crap out of a beautiful Pitts that was right behind me.\u00a0 Red Arizona dirt showered that little biplane which had just received a beautiful new paint job.\u00a0 The owner was livid.\u00a0 He came up to me and he was hot.\u00a0 You know something?\u00a0 I don\u2019t blame him a bit.\u00a0 I felt like a total jerk and I apologized up and down.\u00a0 That seemed to diffuse his anger and we parted company amicably.\u00a0 It was a great lesson to me.\u00a0 I had forgotten some basic etiquette just for a moment and I was really ashamed of myself!<\/p>\n

And now for parking.\u00a0 I can\u2019t tell you how many times I\u2019ve seen someone approach the tiedown line with the intention of simply parking their airplane.\u00a0 All too often it seems that their objective is to get that airplane into the exact parking spot before they shut it down.\u00a0 That operation is normally impossible, even in a tailwheel airplane.\u00a0 As they attempt to maneuver into the spot, they must use lots of power because airplanes that are not rolling must have lots of power in order to maneuver.\u00a0 Where do you think all that angry propwash goes?\u00a0 You bet.\u00a0 It washes over all those other airplanes.\u00a0 Flaps, ailerons, rudders and elevators whack madly against their stops.\u00a0 Gravel impacts windshields and paint jobs with no regard to how nice a paint job it is.. or isn\u2019t.\u00a0 Remember that wonderful song, \u201cHere\u2019s Your Sign\u201d?\u00a0 Well, as the pilot who uses that hamfisted technique exits his airplane, he might as well be wearing a sandwich sign which says, \u201cMy mother didn\u2019t raise me right\u201d.<\/p>\n

The average single engine aircraft is relatively easy to move.\u00a0 If you will simply approach the parking spot and shut down when abeam it, all you will have to do is get out and, using towbar or not, simply back the airplane into the spot in one smooth turn.\u00a0 No propwash, no angry neighbors.\u00a0 That\u2019s the way it should be done.<\/p>\n

Manage your propwash.\u00a0 Not only will other people who have airplanes and who must sweep out hangars appreciate you, but you will demonstrate that your mother raised you right.\u00a0 Oh, and take your hat off at the table.<\/p>\n

Happy blasting!<\/p>\n

Brian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m gonna cover a couple of subjects here:\u00a0 The etiquette of prop wash management and proper parking technique.\u00a0\u00a0 You may ask what they have to do with each other.\u00a0 You\u2019ll find out. Our mothers and fathers taught us manners.\u00a0 They taught us how to play well with others.\u00a0 They taught us to have a firm […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2319"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}