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From: "Matt Hapgood" <hapgoodm94@alum.darden.edu>
Anybody have a prop to loan?
Today was, possibly, one of the more depressing aviation days of my life.
My first "incident" - a prop strike.
Went to the local airport (tiny, quiet field) this morning for quick flight
to Charlotte to drop off a birthday present for my grandmother. Two
helicopters parked on the taxiway. Half hour later, I was done with my
preflight and looking around hoping the helicopter pilots would see me. No
luck. I walked over to where I would have to go over the grass -
calculating the shortest distance on the grass and getting an idea of how
soft the grass was. I had just driven on it, and it wasn't terrible, but
wasn't great either.
About 10 feet into the grass, the nose wheel sunk into the ground, and grass
and dirt started flying. I immediately shut down the engine, started
swearing and cursing, and looking for the nearest chopper pilot to punch.
End result, after talking to AeroComposites this morning, is I need two new
blades. Just what my unemployed budget needed. Worse, I was planning a 10
day cross country trip starting on Tuesday. So on top of new blades I'll
also be buying a ridiculously expensive commercial airline ticket...
My question is this - if I file an insurance claim, will my rates go up? Am
I better off not filing?
Here's a picture of the ground and prop. You can see the divot in the
second picture...
Matt
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Chopper_-dirt-_-tarmac.jpg
Prop-tip-1.jpg
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