Be careful out there

[jewels.]

Originally posted by Baradium


Sorry, can't tell if you are trying to be sarcastic or not... enough people said they didn't understand that I thought they might like to know...

oh no - i wasbeing serious - not sarcastic --- sometimes i am so stupid - i just overlook the obvious --- i should have recognized why i still had my finger after it got caught in the fan --- the reason i still have it is because it got into the fan from the inside (cause i was workin on the side of my vehicle). i was lucky! and now i realize why i was lucky, and didnt get it chopped off. i dont know if it is obvious to everyone else, but as a mechanical engineer, i probably should have known that the direction of the fan blades was my savior. i hope you understand that i was just trying to compliment you on recognizing what *i* might perceive as the obvious. well done! thanks!

jewels.

[Baradium]

Thank You Jewels!


BTW, if the engine is revving, it might not matter. An idling aircraft propeller will take off whatever you stick in it... of course at the tips they don't have a whole of of pitch to them so they are basically a knife. Every few months (or more often) a ground person at an airport is killed by falling/walking into a propeller of a commuter aircraft... well, might not be so often, but I've read two incident reports in the past few months, so I'm going to say it's probobly that often.

That is the *only* reason props have painted tips, in the hopes that people will see them, the flat black side which faces the pilots on a single engine aircraft is hardly visible once the engine is running (can't have it visible... kinda hurts for looking out front). Props are something to be very paranoid about at an airport... scary stuff... of course, jet engine intakes are almost as scary because they'll pull you in before you know anything is happening.

[GMC Jim]

Hmmmm. recalls about the girl that backed into an airplane propellor..........DISASTER !....... ( prounce 'disaster' slowly! ) lol

[Injected68LS1]

Okay, so here is my fan blade story.

One late night I decided to go for a drive. As I was leaving a stop light I hit full throttle in first gear. All of a sudden I hear the loudest thunder in my life just over 4500rpm. I also smelled coolant right away. I thought for sure a rod cracked my block in half. Nope that wasn't it. It was just my brand new, rebuilt delco waterpump that decided it wanted to shed the pulley and fan. Yeah, broke the shaft right off at the seal. That blade/pully took out my radiator, blew up my fan shroud, wrecked my innocent hood, and sliced up the drivers side inner fender well. I never did find all of the blades. The only positive thing was that it missed my radiator hoses? Go figure.....

Now I have an electric fan. If you don't have one get one. My 16" single fan with no shroud works on 100 degree days stopped in traffic.

Can you belive I got a $1900 insurance check from that catastrophe????

[Denny]

Glad you are ok that was a real close call. Gives me goose bumbs thinking about it.