20070623012769I

(-23) Safety counselor at gai statement:Saturday, June 23 mid afternoon, I was sitting in the gai restaurant and observed a navajo (N300HF) landing at what seemed to me an excessive speed, long and not on a stable approach I.e. porpoising in the flair. It went out of my view and I went back to eating lunch. Moments later the UNICOM operator came in to me and asked if she should call ATC and close the airport as a plane had struck a taxi sign and while the aircraft was in the grass its tail was five feet on the runway. To make a long story short UNICOM advised local traffic to not land and the tractor was dispatched to pull the plane off the runway and off the grass. Fifteen minutes and the plane was clear of the runway and being towed to the ramp and only a couple of planes had to do go-arounds. In a little while I went to the ramp and talked with the pilot who had just finished a conversation with his "maintenance inspector" in Kentucky. I was told that the inspector told the pilot to file or have the prop filed and straighten the curve, do a high RPM run up and if all seemed ok to fly it home. I told the pilot I did not think that was such a good idea and that a local IA would be available on Monday to help him and gave him the phone numbers of our two maintenance shops. He took the names and numbers, thanked me and we said good-by. I was at the airport Sunday and saw one of the maintenance shop ia's. after looking at the prop he said he would not file or straighten that prop. His suggestion was to sent it to a repair shop and consider an engine tear down. Attached are six pictures I took. I have some more but these should do for now. On arriving at the airport this morning I saw that the navajo was not here and the UNICOM person said that it left Sunday around 1700. On my answering machine was a message from a local pilot saying he talked with the navajo pilot Sunday afternoon about the prop and suggested waiting until today to leave. The navajo pilot said he had a "ferry permit" and he was leaving if the run-up was successful. The local pilot observed that two blades of the prop had been filed but the "bend" was still there. He saw the pilot and his wife enter the plane, start it, do a high RPM run-up and leave. The navajo pilot called me this morning and said they made it back ok although there were some thunderstorms to navigate around. And would I contact the airport manager and have him send a bill for the taxi sign that he broke. He stated again that his maintenance inspector said it was ok to fly home if the run-up seemed ok. It did and so he did.