My trainer (Avistar) came in on a few rough landings yesterday, and twice the engine turned off when the nylon propeller struck the soft soil under the grass of the field. The engine did start up just fine after the landings, but should I be checking the engine for any problems in the future (O.S. .40)? What does experience say here?

Na, me and my friend have nosed my Falcon 56 over lots of times, and he is a mechanic, he said that it wouldnt do anything to hurt the engine with just a prop strike like that. Just make sure dirt doesnt get in the carb.

Shane

I agree with Shane. There is always an exception, but I have seen countless prop strikes like you described with 40 - 60 sized planes. None caused any problems.

Eric

Take your soft soil and ..... Should try it up here on this 20 deg. frozen turf. uugh.
Like Shane said, make sure carb is clean. It would take more of a one point landing to damage the crank.

So long as you were at idle or there abouts, you should be ok.

Thanks guys. I checked the carb, nothing in there. I was at idle, because it was at or about the 3rd bounce.

The wings broke on my trainer. It nosed dived from WAAAAAY up in the air. It sounded like a canon when it hit the ground. It knocked the carb off, crack the exhaust mount and ripped off the high speed needs, not to mention it turned the spinner into tiny pieces.

I didn't think it would ever work agan. I built a new plane. I took the engine apart and sprayed it out with parts cleaner. Put two gaskets on the exhaust and it seems to run great! I havn't flown it yet. But I am surprised as heck an engine can withstand that kind of punishment and still work.

Put an air filter over your carb and don't sweat it. What you should do is turn over the engine any time you have ground contact. The only real damage that you might do to the engine is bend the crankshaft which is unlikely. The engine mount could break too, but again, on a nose over it's unlikely.

If the crankshaft is bent, you'll be able to tell when you turn the prop over.

BUT! Always check your prop carefully for small cracks. If a blade flies off, somebody could get hurt or it could fly through someone's plane. If then engine isn't shut down immediately, a lot of damage could occur from the unbalanced load - broken engine mounts, broken firewall, etc.

not trying to scare you because as has been said, the most probable damage is a broken prop, but you should check over the plane for safety.