Blown Up Sheet Rock

[lv2plyguitar 172]

I started my rotax 912 ULS.  I can feel the tail wanting to rise much easier than with the Rotax 582.  I must say Im a little frightened to firewall it the first time out as I can feel the power difference just sitting in the cockpit ground testing.

That being said I was in the garage and started the engine for a brief minute and forgot about a piece of sheet rock leaning against the garage door in front of plane.  It was a good 5 or 6 feet away.  The prop sucked the sheet away from the garage door and hit the prop and sheetrock exploded all over the garage.  My heart sunk at first until I realize the prop was not even dented.  I saw it coming and killed the ignition before the sheetrock hit.  I laughed nervously for a while.    Lesson learned.

[akflyer 1427]

  I thought running the engine in the garage / hangar was a no no... not only can you suck up things in front of you, you can make one heck of a mess out of the things on the wall or laying on benches and blow stuff everywhere.  If you want to make enemies really fast just start a plane in front of an open hangar or spin you plane around in front of an open hangar door and give them a blast.. It tends to influence the hangar owner in a negative way

With the slipper clutch you should be OK, but I am sure there are those who will say you just bought yourself a tear down inspection.  Any solid object hitting the prop is not good.

 

 

[lostman 198]

Wow, that could have been disastrous. I would seriously think about checking the prop out with a magnifying glass to make sure you didn't really hurt it. It's not a good thing if it has a hairline crack that you might not see and then go to fly it. They say you only have 1.5 seconds once a prop breaks to cut the engine off before it rips the whole assembly from the firewall due to the imbalance. Not something to mess around with since that is not recoverable unless you have an emergency chute. 

[lv2plyguitar 172]

True story. I have looked it over carefully. Still ground testing.  The sheet rock did not stop the prop.  It was the less dense light weight stuff. The engine did not even hesitate.  Serious but still makes me laugh. 

Edited 17 Feb 2017 by lv2plyguitar

[EDMO 1078]

True story. I have looked it over carefully. Still ground testing.  The sheet rock did not stop the prop.  It was the less dense light weight stuff. The engine did not even hesitate.  Serious but still makes me laugh. 

Should this have been put in "Close calls and dumb stunts", like Harrison Ford landing on a taxiway instead of a runway?   EDMO

Edited 17 Feb 2017 by EDMO

[1avidflyer 1983]

What kind of prop is it?  Some are of course more durable then others.  JImChuk

[akflyer 1427]

Jeff has an ivo magnum.