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mistake. With the four-blade propellers, of course there will be a hole for rain to exit the spinner no matter whether the sleeve connects to the down or up blade. Thus, putting the sleeve on the up blade does not increase the risk of propeller imbalance due to ice inside the spinner. However, the fit of the strap and cover to the exhaust stub still favors the blade down profile, leading me to still use the original orientation. But I have no complaint whatsoever for those who choose to go blade up for the increased visibility reason.
Ready for another war story? Because of the delay needed for the exhaust stack to cool enough for comfortably installing the stub covers, this particular operator had made a second set of prop restraints that replaced the elastic cords and the stub covers with simple bungees with hooks on both ends. One was connected to the sleeve and the other available to hook to the exhaust stub lip. Easy peasy, right?
The early model 200 landed and was parked for the day at an airport in Kentucky that had a King Air maintenance facility associated with the FBO. It was another windy, cold and rainy day so the pilot installed the homemade restraints. The temperature kept falling as hours passed until the rain had turned to sleet. When the passengers arrived later in the day, the pilot found a major starting problem: no N1 rotation when he activated the start switch. The large drop in voltage led him to
believe that the starter was receiving power, but the compressor shaft never showed any speed. Into the maintenance facility he goes, reports the problem and is advised that they will pull the plane into the shop. “We had this same thing happen about a month ago on another 200. The Number 2 bearing – the forward support of the compressor shaft – had seized and we had to replace that bearing. I bet yours is the same. Probably a bad batch of bearings.”
The passengers get put on another plane and into the shop the 200 goes. The shop personnel start by removing the starter-generator and inserting a socket wrench into the accessory case splines and trying to rotate the compressor by hand. “Yep, she’s frozen solid.” The pilot authorized the shop to proceed to replace the suspected seized bearing.
This shop, being well-versed on King Airs, had the cowling off and the power section separated from the compressor section at the C flange in a jiffy, to gain access to the bearing. Wait! What is this we see?
We see the bottom quarter or so of the compressor turbine (CT) solidly encased in a hunk of ice. What the ...?!
Seems like the rain and wind angle had conspired to blow lots of water into the engine via the uncovered exhaust stacks. As the temperature dropped, the water inside of the engine had now frozen, locking the CT in
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SEPTEMBER 2024
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 25