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Lets start a discussion about Twin Otters

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Don't know if it's just me, or maybe others have thought about it
When your sitting next to the prop an watching it out of the window
how many of you have thought about what would happen if it came unglued



Have you also noticed the reinforced fuselage on the exterior of most (all?) Otters for this specific reason?

_Am
__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

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Don't know if it's just me, or maybe others have thought about it
When your sitting next to the prop an watching it out of the window
how many of you have thought about what would happen if it came unglued



Have you also noticed the reinforced fuselage on the exterior of most (all?) Otters for this specific reason?

_Am




Andy, that's not for catching blades shedding themselves. That's for when you are flying in icing condistions and the ice breaks off and hits the fuselage. If those blades sling you aren't stopping them.
Chris Schindler
www.diverdriver.com
ATP/D-19012
FB #4125

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Have you also noticed the reinforced fuselage on the exterior of most (all?) Otters for this specific reason?

_Am



>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

That extra panel is just to prevent ice (throw by the propeller) from denting the fuselage. If you look closely, you will see similar panels on a lot of other twin prop jobs.
Since few skydiving Twin Otters are regularly flow in icing conditions, that panel is just a relic from their previous careers hauling passengers or freight.

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Ooops... my bad.

Would it not be the case that a shedding blade would most likely fly itself forward, rather than pierce the cabin anyway?

_Am




You could hope. But past experience says those blades go wherever the heck they want to. I've seen reports of props slung on Saab 340s that went into the cabin. I know that one Casa slung the whole prop disc and it was described to have gone forward first before arcing over the top.
Chris Schindler
www.diverdriver.com
ATP/D-19012
FB #4125

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That aircraft is a Fokker F-27, designated by the military as a "C-31." The Golden Knights have had two of them since the late 1980's.



Two? I thought one of went in at Yuma in late 2001 or maybe early 2002. I remember hearing about it when I was in rigging school.

-Blind
"If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

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That aircraft is a Fokker F-27, designated by the military as a "C-31." The Golden Knights have had two of them since the late 1980's.



Two? I thought one of went in at Yuma in late 2001 or maybe early 2002. I remember hearing about it when I was in rigging school.

-Blind




Anyone have more info about the GKs taking the wings off their Twin Otter when it was taxied in between two hangars that were a weeee bit too close?
Chris Schindler
www.diverdriver.com
ATP/D-19012
FB #4125

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Don't know if it's just me, or maybe others have thought about it
When your sitting next to the prop an watching it out of the window
how many of you have thought about what would happen if it came unglued


I don't worry about it, because I know they use Superglue :):P
scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

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Some answers below. I'm a pilot but have never flown an Otter as PIC.

>How many DZ's have the little compartment in the rear open for people
>to sit.

In my experience about 25% of the Otters out there have access to that.

>How bad is a blow out on the front or rear tires on takeoff.

Depends where it happens. If it happens when the elevator has enough authority to hold the nose off the ground, a loss of the nosewheel tire is not very significant; GA pilots actually practice soft-field takeoffs while intentionally holding the nose off the ground as early as possible. Also, if you lose a main-gear tire when the gear are lightly loaded (i.e. when you begin to rotate) it's also more of a minor issue. Unfortunately, that's when it's least likely to occur.

Larger aircraft have V1 (or decision) speeds; if they lose a tire after that point in the takeoff they must continue the takeoff because there is not enough room to stop the aircraft before the end of the runway. Otters at most DZ's don't have this consideration, since they're pretty good STOL aircraft.

>I am sure that it is flown by cable is there any sort of back up?

Most aircraft can be flown by use of trim tabs if all else fails; that's how autopilots in light aircraft work, they just tweak the trim tab.

>I understand there are no pistons only compressor blades and fuel
>injectors, but how does it contain the combustion? Is it in something
>that resembles a turbo housing on diesels?

Sort of. Careful design of the airflow within the hot section prevents combustion products from moving upstream of the fuel injectors. Keep in mind that there is some very fast-moving air inside the engine; it's hard for combustion to propagate forward without fuel (i.e. ahead of the injectors.)

>Also I understand it that feathering the prop means turning it lenthwise
>so that it produces the least drag to the relative wind, what is the term
>for turning them so that they are flat if you look at them from the nose.

Flat pitch, or high RPM pitch. It generates a lot of drag. Pilots use this during landing because a) it helps them descend faster and b) if they need power fast they are most likely going to be at low airspeeds, and flat pitch gets you the most power at low airspeeds. Sort of like low gear on a transmission.

>Can you turn them around and force air forward a bit to slow you down.

In many planes you can; that's called the beta range.

>Like in free fall is there anything you can do to cause drag in a dive

You can slip the plane, which means you cross-control with rudder and aileron (i.e. turn left with the rudder and right with ailerons.) This presents a less streamlined profile to the relative wind. It's more useful to lose an extra 200 feet on final when you're coming in too hot than to descend rapidly from 13,000 feet, and is used more on fixed-pitch prop aircraft that don't have other tricks to lose energy.

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Don't know if it's just me, or maybe others have thought about it
When your sitting next to the prop an watching it out of the window
how many of you have thought about what would happen if it came unglued
I know I have.

Also is thier any reason that the prop rotates anticlockwise (looking from the front)?



They turn the other direction in the southern hemisphere;):P
...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

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>>They turn the other direction in the southern hemisphere

>Naah, just russia...

Interesting point about some russian prop transports -

On most US aircraft, both props spin in the same direction. That means that there is something called a "critical engine." Without getting into too much detail, on multiengine planes with engines spinning the same direction there is one engine that, if you lose power on it, the plane becomes harder to control than if you lose power on the other engine. Some russian transports are designed with props that spin opposite directions on opposite sides of the plane, such that there is no critical engine.

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Don't know if it's just me, or maybe others have thought about it
When your sitting next to the prop an watching it out of the window
how many of you have thought about what would happen if it came unglued



Have you also noticed the reinforced fuselage on the exterior of most (all?) Otters for this specific reason?

_Am




The reinforcement on the fusalage is for when ice forms on the prop then is flung off.

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Actually I was referring to russian piston engines, which generally turn counterclockwise (as viewed from behind). Russian (and french) helicopter rotors also turn clockwise, whereas the rest of the world designs em to spin counterclockwise.

But yeah, counter rotating props are a smart design but it's usually just too expensive to build em unless they're absolutely necessary (V-22).

Dave

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