Stop the prop !

[Cormoran]

Gentlemen

I've shutdown the airplane, parked with a 35knot headwind.
So the propeller wont stop !

Will this damage the engine, is it supposed to be like this even in real life, is there a way to stop the propeller in the flight sim ?

Thanks for a great great addon, and continued success.

[Scott - A2A]

What you are seeing is the physics of the wind pushing on the angled blade and moving the engine. I've never sat in a 35 kt headwind, but my gut would say that wouldn't be that far from what it would take to move the prop. When we landed the Cherokee with the engine off, the prop continued to windmill all the way down to 30 kts.

Scott.

[Levkovvvv]

And I don't think it would damage the engine immediately, as long as the driveshaft is turning, so is the oil pump, and the engine is getting lubrication, but I would turn the plane 90 degrees, secure the prop, and then return it to parking position

[Scott - A2A]

Yes, as Levkovvvv said, no (technically minuscule) damage to an engine moving it by hand.

Scott.

[lonewulf47]

Gentlemen

I've shutdown the airplane, parked with a 35knot headwind.
So the propeller wont stop !

Will this damage the engine, is it supposed to be like this even in real life, is there a way to stop the propeller in the flight sim ?

Thanks for a great great addon, and continued success.

Welcome to the world of simulation! What you are seeing here is also one of the major deficiencies of many simulators regarding winds. While indeed there can be very strong winds reported, the actual wind is much lower close to the surface due to the wind gradient in the surface's boundary layer. So yes, in fact it is possible that the prop would be actually keep turning at a 35 KTS headwind, however it is very unlikely to have a steady 35 KTS IRL wind so close to the ground for the abovementioned reason.

This is perfectly inline with Scott's explanation where the prop keeps turning to sppeds down to almost 30 KTS. But this is with the A/C moving, so the boundary layer has no effect. The best remedy is: park the A/C in crosswind and secure it tightly...

[Oracle427]

Wow, I never thought about this but it makes sense. I would imagine it would be unlikely to harm a warm well oiled engine, but if the RPM drops too low and the engine cools off too much, the oil will not be lubricating as well as it should and parts might get damaged. That's just a total uneducated guess.

I will never be caught untying the tiedowns on a light aircraft in 35kt winds lest I go flying with the kite or get run over by it.

[AKar]

In reality, wind speed is typically measured at around 10 meters height. At ground level, as one may note, the wind is seldom that steady nor strong due to surface layer and obstacles. As Oskar notes, in the simulator the proximity of ground has no such effect on the wind. This is also a reason why landings in the simulator are far less 'dynamic' than in reality: in real life conditions, even lightest winds tend to have some irregular character just over the ground.

Once the propeller is stopped, it would take higher airspeed to make it turn again. Actually, depending on the blade angle and other stuff, in some power plants it can be practically impossible to start the windmilling again by airflow alone.

In A2A Comanche, I once had the prop windmilling at some curiously low wind speed - too bad I didn't take a note of it, but I think it was around 16 kts. That was clearly too low of course - I'm not sure if there was some weather engine anomaly or what was happening. I've never re-tested this since. Recording the actual windmilling speed of the constant speed propeller (that is, at what airspeed it reaches the stops and how the rpm decreases after that) would be interesting test to do in Seminole or in another twin. This, of course, should be done ending to a planned single engine landing - feathering the engine in such a test can turn out to be impossible, and this must be taken into account!

-Esa

[Great Ozzie]

I was using ASN at MYMM (Bahamas) a couple hours ago...

Very amusing what happened with Hurricane Joaquin being nearby and all.

[Levkovvvv]

This made me think of a discussion on another publishers forum some 6ish years ago where a customer was complaining why spins weren't simulated and the developer explaining why it wasn't possible And here we are now discussing in detail exact speed restrictions for a windmilling engine Makes me wonder what we will have in another 6 years time

[Racklefratz]

I've shutdown the airplane, parked with a 35knot headwind. So the propeller wont stop! Will this damage the engine, is it supposed to be like this even in real life, is there a way to stop the propeller in the flight sim ?

I fully realize this thread is dead, but I read through it to see what would be advanced. As a previous owner of a real Comanche ('66 Comanche B 260), I can say that in real life, it wouldn't happen - the prop would just stop as it does during any engine shut-down. There's way too much compression in an O-540 engine for that to occur. Even the prop in a Cessna 150 would stop in wind like that. To keep a prop windmilling in the wind, the airplane's going to have to be at flying airspeed for that to happen, and even at that, it's possible to stop the prop with a little piloting technique.

[DHenriques_]

I've shutdown the airplane, parked with a 35knot headwind. So the propeller wont stop! Will this damage the engine, is it supposed to be like this even in real life, is there a way to stop the propeller in the flight sim ?

I fully realize this thread is dead, but I read through it to see what would be advanced. As a previous owner of a real Comanche ('66 Comanche B 260), I can say that in real life, it wouldn't happen - the prop would just stop as it does during any engine shut-down. There's way too much compression in an O-540 engine for that to occur. Even the prop in a Cessna 150 would stop in wind like that. To keep a prop windmilling in the wind, the airplane's going to have to be at flying airspeed for that to happen, and even at that, it's possible to stop the prop with a little piloting technique.

True. Even in the humble little 150 it's hard to get a complete prop stop in the air. You have to literally hang the airplane up at or nearly at stall to do it. Once you get it to stop (if you do . If the engine has any decent compression getting it started again past that first compression stroke can be fun diving near to Vne to do it.
Dudley Henriques