propeller counter weights please explain

[h34race]

I just watched the movie aviator and the h1 racer they said they had a problem with the propeller on the counter weights I read it in the magazine also I just don't understand did they not have enough weight or was there too much I believe it has something to do with engine speed just don't understand it can somebody please explain

[Randy Haskin]

Re: propeller counter weights please explain

Pretty good explanation here:

http://www.thaitechnics.com/propeller/prop_control.html

[Lockheed Bob]

Re: propeller counter weights please explain

I believe Wrights H-1 remake also had a counterweight problem which caused his accident on his flight from "Oshkosh" near "Yellowstone". I may be wrong.(Again)

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: propeller counter weights please explain

I believe Wrights H-1 remake also had a counterweight problem which caused his accident on his flight from "Oshkosh" near "Yellowstone". I may be wrong.(Again)

Hey Bob, you've been kind of quiet lately.. You are not wrong, they had very similar if not exact same problems as Hughes did with the counter weights and or, prop twist.. That is not what brought the airplane down, however.. (shared problems Hughes had) The shared problem was with the twist of the propeller, and thinking hard on it, I'm not sure the counterweights were the issue with that.. What did bring down the plane was a crack in one of the counterweight shafts and the subsequent separation of one of the weights. Likely, the initial crack happened when, after an Air and Space Smithsonian photo shoot, Jim had a gear collapse on one side, resulting in MULTIPLE prop strikes.. VERY light prop strikes, mind you.. not prop bending by any stretch.. which, unfortunately, led to the decision not to do intensive testing of components after the incident..

When I attended Jim Wrights services, Ron Englund, his engineer was simply devastateded by the accident, feeling it was his fault.. Ron if you read this, no one ever thought it was your fault!