ORIGINAL: paf
ORIGINAL: Gordon Mc
ORIGINAL: paf
To me, the model seems to have went out of control approximately 5 seconds before impact. That's not enough time to bleed off enough kinetic energy to make it non-lethal, even with the engine at idle. However that's no excuse for anyone to not have a PCM failsafe go to idle.
5 seconds is more than enough time to stop a prop by having failsafe set to engine kill
From my experience (failed throttle servo, killing the engine using electronic kill switch in order to land), it takes around 15 seconds for a 32x10 CF prop to actually come to a stop during level flight.
Sounds like something's wrong with your engine.
I'll tell you what.... if I give you the choice of sticking your arm into a 34 inch prop running at full bore, and doing the same for a prop that's windmilling lightly 5 seconds after being shut down on an engine that apparently has little or no compression - which would you choose ?
Given that you assert point blank that PCM set for engine kill could not have made any difference to the outcome of this event, either you have documented proof that the fatalities were not in any way attributable to the prop, or you believe that being struck by such a prop at full power can't kill you -- which is it ?
Gordon