Prop strike advice
Hi all,
Curious for your input and opinions as to further course of action.
Please see image attached of the damaged prop tips.
Prop touched a hard surface runway during landing. Power was at idle. No discernible RPM decrease occurred, the strike was not noticed by pilot when it occurred, only afterwards, after a few more flights (uneventful, all engine parameters identical to previous flights), was the damage at the prop tips discovered.
Rotax SL (SL-915 i-008R1, Rev. December 2024) excerpts:
A propeller strike can be defined as follows:
Any incident, whether or not the engine is operating (e.g. damage due to contact with foreign
objects, landing gear failure etc.), that requires a removal of the propeller for repair. Also if a
propeller governor is installed, it must be inspected and repaired in accordance with the propel-
ler governor manufacturer's published instructions.
and
Propeller constructions should be considered when assessing the possible engine dam-
age from a propeller strike
1. Aluminum and solid composite (including some solid wood) propellers are more likely to trans-
mit the forces and damage the engine due to the increased mass and strength.
2. Lightweight composite propellers with wood or foam cores are less likely to transmit forces to
the engine as they tend to disintegrate upon impact.
3. If no drop in RPM is detected and a lightweight propeller is damaged from a strike it is possible
there is no resulting engine damage.
Curious for any input on what to do next (so far I've heard input ranging from "repair the prop and all good" to "gearbox and engine need to be shipped for extensive testing/overhaul".
Thank you very much! 🙏