By Roger Long

You’re making your preflight inspection of the airplane and almost casually run your hand along the leading edge of the propeller blade. A finger catches. Closer inspection reveals a small nick in the prop. It’s no big deal. Or is it?

It’s a hard thing to do, grounding the airplane on a beautiful weekend for just one little nick in the prop. It is less than 1 percent of the blade sectional area so, if strain is proportional to the area it is distributed over, there should be only an insignificant decrease in strength. Why not go flying? …