Page 20 - Volume 11 Number 10

the importance of installing the restraints if the airplane out onto the ramp an hour or so before
airplane would be parked for more than 30 minutes or so. Yet, when our students drove to lunch, what did they see on the factory ramp? They saw every new King Air sitting there with no restraints and the props turning like crazy! Right or wrong, the production test personnel had been directed not to worry about it ... and they surely did not! Was harm caused? Probably; no one knows the exact answer, but I’ll say this: I don’t think Beech ever received a warranty claim for RGB damage in a new King Air. (At least not when I worked at the factory, 1972-1977. I wonder if the Textron production test flight department still lets them spin?)
From this experience I, personally, am not worried about restraining the props during a fuel stop or passenger drop-off or pick-up. Even if the airplane will be sitting for hours waiting for the passengers to return, I will still not install them if the wind is light and forecasted to remain that way. But overnight stops? I will always install the restraints along with the other “loose equipment” items, like pitot tube covers and intake plugs. In fact, I will do this even if I have arranged for hangaring the airplane overnight at the FBO, since I don’t know what the wind condition will be when they pull the
the scheduled departure the next day.
I have observed some operators who do not always use the Beech-provided restraints, but instead have taken a simple bungee cord of the right length so that it can be looped to tie one blade to one exhaust stack. This eliminates the hot stack worry since the tight- fitting exhaust cover does not need to be installed. The simple bungee is used when it’s windy even during a relatively quick turn and the “proper” restraint only is used for the overnight situations. By the time the passengers and baggage are off-loaded, the fueling is done, the potty stop has been made, and the other covers and plugs installed, the exhaust stacks are cool enough that affixing the restraints to them is not problematic.
However, a word of caution: If you are going to use the simple bungee cord, I strongly suggest having a big, red, “Remove Before Flight” tag that can be readily seen from the cockpit attached to it. It’s embarrassing to get all situated ready to start and then realize the bungee was never removed. And that leads to a humorous war story:
One day back in the 1960s, a King Air A90 had made a trip from its Northeastern home base airport to LaGuardia airport in New York. The Chairman of the Board (COB) and his aides were the passengers and he, the COB, had a very important dinner meeting back home that evening. It was a cold and windy day, so the airplane sat at KLGA with the standard prop restraints in place.
As the day wore on, the nervous-nelly chief pilot, who was PIC that day, got more and more worried that the boss would not return in time to make his dinner engagement. He briefed the co-pilot, “Now when the boss arrives, you load the passengers and get the door and I will go straight to the cockpit to get the clearance and start the engines.”
“Is that him?” “Is that him?” was the PIC’s query as each limousine arrived. Finally, there he was! Like a bullet, our intrepid hero ran to the cockpit to get ready. The copilot, as directed, saw that everyone was safely aboard, briefcases stowed, briefing given. Before he pulled the airstair door up, he heard the sound of the right engine being started ... but he hadn’t yet pulled the restraints! He quickly, temporarily (he thought), closed the door and raced up the aisle. “Mike! Mike! Wait, I haven’t untied the props!” He could also see the linemen waving at the cockpit and pointing to the still-tied down right prop that was not yet rotating but pulling strongly against its restraint. About that time, as the engine reached high idle, the exhaust burned through the stack covers and the elastic cord
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18 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
OCTOBER 2017