{"id":5132,"date":"2019-03-07T11:30:16","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T19:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.mechadigital.net\/?p=5132"},"modified":"2021-08-26T20:37:51","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T20:37:51","slug":"226-prop-slingin-a-specialty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/226-prop-slingin-a-specialty\/","title":{"rendered":"#226  \u201cProp-Slingin\u2019 a Specialty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Written in July, 2018<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>I honestly can\u2019t remember where I saw that subtitle.\u00a0Perhaps it was on Tom Jones\u2019 flashy customized truck.\u00a0 Maybe it was on his airplane.\u00a0 But when I asked Tom where the phrase came from, he told me the whole story.<\/h3>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3>Seems that Tom was performing at an airshow with his Pitt\u2019s special.\u00a0 The airplane was a single place Pitts Special and I believe that, in addition to its big, muscular engine, it also had a big three-bladed Prop.\u00a0 That prop must have weighed at least 70 or eighty pounds, which had to be figured at the forward end of its weight and balance calculations.\u00a0As all pilots know, the center of gravity of every airplane must be within a relatively small area consisting of maximum distance forward and aft of the reference point or datum.\u00a0 Any distance beyond that Center of Gravity and the aircraft can be difficult or impossible to control.<\/h3>\n<h3><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-5133\" src=\"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Krashbern-and-Tommy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"575\" height=\"384\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Krashbern-and-Tommy.jpg 709w, https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Krashbern-and-Tommy-600x401.jpg 600w, https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Krashbern-and-Tommy-300x201.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 575px) 100vw, 575px\" \/><\/h3>\n<p><strong>\u00a0Brian (L) and Tom when they performed &#8220;The Champ and the Chump airshow act.\u00a0 The Pitts is the plane that Tom used to fly.\u00a0 Note the 300 hp engine and the propeller.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Tom was performing his routine and perhaps it was the snap roll that did it.\u00a0 Whatever it was, the sudden force on the crank shaft caused it to break and the propeller to depart from the rest of the airplane.\u00a0 With the center of gravity, sans propeller, suddenly moved aft, the airplane was virtually impossible to control.\u00a0 Remember, that with the prop having left the aircraft, Tom not only had a sudden aft center of gravity, but he also had no power.\u00a0 It was everything he could do, with full forward stick, to keep the airplane flying as it descended at a high descent rate toward the ground.\u00a0 Perhaps Tom would have been seriously injured if the plane had ended up in a pasture or a pile of rocks but looming in its path was a cluster of aircraft hangars. Tom\u2019s propless airplane smashed through the roof of one of the hangars, leaving a Pitt\u2019s Special-shaped hole in the roof.\u00a0 Several witnesses to the separation rushed to the scene of the crash.\u00a0They probably paused for a moment, afraid of what they would find when they burst through the \u201cman door\u201d and into the hangar.\u00a0 Such a crash could be impossible to survive.<\/h3>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3>The hangar was filled with dust.\u00a0 It was hard to see because of the dust and dirt caused by the crash.\u00a0 Sunlight streamed into the hangar through the hole in the roof and provided the only light. And out of the gloom of the wrecked hangar stumbled Tom, coughing and smacking at his flight suit to dust it off.\u00a0 Relatively uninjured, the stunt pilot exclaimed, \u201cWell, THAT was exciting!\u00a0Does anyone know where my propeller went?<\/h3>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3>I don\u2019t know where Tom\u2019s prop went or what condition it was in when it was recovered, but I DO know where that subtitle came from.\u00a0And if I ever needed a prop \u00a0slung, I knew who to see.<\/h3>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3>Happy Swooping (and try to keep your prop on) \u2026<\/h3>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3>Brian Lansburgh<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;&#8230;perhaps it was the snap roll that did it.\u00a0 Whatever it was, the sudden force on the crank shaft caused it to break and the propeller to depart from the rest of the airplane.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5133,"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":[18,35,58,67,100,158,174],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5132"}],"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=5132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}