Scudrunners

Not sure whats going on with this plane but

I queried the apparent lack of a propeller right away. Turns out he lost it...

Didn't notice that good eye. I think you need one of those right?

Looking at the position of the aircraft and it looks like he is pretty hot - my only question is what the fuck was he doing in the first place, we just saw the results. Damn

I hope I would have done some S turns on final to try to land at the start of the runway instead of the end, but I suppose one might get distracted.

From what I’ve heard elsewhere, it was aThatcher CX-4 homebuilt on a test flight that lost its prop. The airport is surrounded by housing so he intended to glide back to the runway. He clearly came in high/hot (I can understand a fear of the opposite though we all saw how this went), then I read he tried a bunch of stuff beyond just braking to try and get it stopped but, again, the whole thing started hot as hell.

Perhaps the big take away after watching this is the idea that not every forced approach will leave you with an airplane that performs the way the one on your flight test did. A windmilling propeller makes a lot more drag than you might expect, for example the Garrett/Hartzell combo at my part time job produces zero thrust at around 20% torque. A little quick math shows that the engine has to produce 143 horsepower just to overcome the drag of the turning propellers, in that particular case. Obviously the Volkswagen(?) engine in that Thatcher wouldn’t have to make so much power just to turn the prop though I imagine the percentage would be about the same.

All that to say that if you’re used to flying your approaches (forced and regular) with idle power, if the prop ever parts company you’ll find your plane will probably float and float and float. Or the opposite if your engine failure kept the prop but opened up your cowl.

This video has been upgraded to “Impossible” to watch.

This thread is three years old? I don't think LC is even alive any more. We can't talk about what happened to him, but ....

I don’t remember what I had for breakfast, what’s the run down on the video again?

Shoot I posted it and I can’t remember but Pilots
Lived……..