What NOT to do when hand propping an airplane!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeTM-paAXCo

Wow that video was old school FAA!

He could have at least told his friend how to shut down the engine if necessary… oh well - "Don't let this happen to you!"

Bloody hell! That would have been absolutely terrifying. Someone where I used to live accidently started the prop while he was moving the aircraft into the hangar. Lucky he didn't chop an arm off...

...lucky he didn't get killed!

They probably should have referred to her as his "former girlfriend…"

I would agree!

I sent this to a master instructor on our field that has been teaching for many many years. He related two instances to me regarding props and people:

1. Twenty years ago, a woman with waist length blond hair got her hair got caught in the prop and it ripped out part of her scalp and ALL of her hair. The docs were able to patch the scalp, but the hair was gone.

2. I actually remember this one, but didn't know Art was in the air at the time. Some years ago, a plane (I believe it was a high wing of some kind) got away from a pilot as he was hand propping his plane in Two Rock California (not far from where I live). The throttle and trim must have been set just perfect for this but the plane took off and became airborne! It flew all by itself over Lake Berryessa until it ran out of fuel and finally crashed in the hills. Thankfully no one was hurt. Art was in the air at the time in the same area and remembers this plane flying around unaccounted for.

Nice find there Becky
and that second story of yours almost sounds like fiction. Luckyly no one got hurt what actually does make this story sound kind of funny.

I remember an incident at a nearby airfield from last year when a pilot only shut down the ignition to stop the engine but didn't cut the fuel. So when he got out of his plane to do a walk around the engine selfignited. Unfortunately the prop striked his head killing him.
Those things are nasty when they hit something. I never tried but I don't want to either. The stories you hear are enough to always stay aware.

Yes Chill,
I yell CLEAR! when I start my club's plane even if I know FOR certain that no one is around...

I found the link for the Lake Berryessa incident: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22242

A very frightening film and thanks for sharing it with us Becky. The lady must have been so scared. I wonder if she was still his girlfriend after all that.? It could all have ended with two fatalities.

Back in the early eighties, a high-school buddy of mine bought a 1939 Luscombe 8A which required hand-propping its 65 HP Continental A-65 motor. I had the "pleasure" of hand-propping it quite a few times whenever we took her up. No big deal, actually. At least I can say I've done it!

But, one day, he called me up seriously depressed. It seems he was by himself at a nearby airport and had difficulty starting the engine. The plane was tied down at all three points with the parking brake set. So far, so good. But, with each of his failed hand-propping attempts, he advanced the throttle a bit more. I'm sure you all now know where this is going..

Long story short, it finally started, and at darned-near full throttle. The rest is legendary around these parts and certainly one for the books.

After forty-some years of "iffy" MX on this once proud bird, the parking brake was an obvious victim of neglect and offered little help that day. In fact, two of the three tie-down anchors helped little either after getting literally pulled free from the turf. That's when the real excitement began.

The one good anchor holding the left wing did an admirable job as long as it could serving as the pivot point of this unoccupied airplane spinning around it with increasing frequency. My friend eventually and wisely gave up the futile chase and ran away with the other few bystanders, some of them in cars after abandoning their desks from an adjacent office abutting the area after viewing the terrifying scene unfold outside the window. But once the last anchor finally gave up (the ghost?), the Luscombe broke free a took out a good portion of the empennage section of a parked crop-duster, causing over five-thousand dollars damage.

Uninsured, thus his depression...

By the way, my friend is now flying a Gulfstream 550 for a famous singer. So every time he resorts to cockiness with me, I remind him of this event.

Wow some very frightening stories to read here! I'm always amazed by how powerful those little props can be.

Once at my local airfield I went to do flying lessons in a Cessna 150. There was another Cessna 150 also doing flying lessons and there was a child about 11 having his first flight. After the pilot eventually got the 150 started, he taxied straight into a cone on the tarmac which the prop impacted first. The cone completely shattered, with peices flinging up like 50m into the air! Anways, I remember the kid coming out of the plane pretty shaken up but he was ok. The poor 150 had it's engine all out of whack and the prop was destroyed. It needed a few thousand dollars worth of repairs.

Dash,

Sounds like the depression was only temporary

Lest the blade come round and smite thee, make sure there is no gravel or loose stuff to make you slip where you stand.
Pre=determine the directions of the prop - obviously!
Call "mags off, Park Brake on (and) brake on" (or even chock with long strings - in) -
"Throttle out"

Turn prop a couple of moves of the crank - to tell engine you really mean business. One, two. Retracting your hand at every click. (Better to retract your hand at every turn like a scardy cat rather than end up being a one legged cat trying to bury its own doo-doo on a frozen pond)

When ready, Call "Brakes On" and get the call back "Brakes On"

"Fuel On" - fuel on

"Mix Rich"-mix rich

"Master On" - Master On.

"Mags On Both" - mags on both

"Throttle quarter inch" - throttle quarter inch.

Clear look round.

Approach -now - L I V E - prop.

(prepare to run like ----!!)

Place hand on higher blade at top of it - and - grip blade 1/4 way in from the end -
[[too near the end and you will need a bandage afterwards]]

Put hand shoulder towards higher blade - your aim is to pull the prop blade smartly down - AND - turn away from the aircraft and retrieve your hand smartish and run a step or two, to clear the prop when it fires - indeed to clear away from the prop before the next blade comes around to slice your hand off - ALL IN ONE MOVE. (HENCE THE NEED FOR A GRAVEL FREE SURFACE FOR YOUR FEET - BECAUSE OF YOU SLIP UNDER THE PROP . . . you will never have to wear a hat again.

Rule No.1 Don`t try it until or unless you have been CLEARED to swing a prop by experienced prop swinging personnel at the club/school OR whatever establishment you are at.

Good luck. Its fun, but very dangerous, and I`ve still got two arms and both eyes to prove it.

Now you got me curious FastJet, what birds do/did you fly that need handpropping? You'd get a thumb up if its an old warbird but then again there propably are a couple of planes that need handpropping. I'm just not all too familiar with fixed wings. Nice instructions you gave there too. I did some yelling practice and my flatmate came along to tell me that I was spending too much time in front of my computer...

LOL ! I know what you mean, wait until you start practising your R/T!!

Don't remember me. That did take up some time on the phone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwT-RXuu4wA

And that fellow was trying to hand prop the compressor stage of that A-6 Intruder! Watch the technique, he is a legend for those who served under the Navy jack.

LOL! I know what you mean.



P.S. ("Don`t remind me" - perhaps?)

Wednesday morning, I was darned close to hand propping a Cessna 210. 0745 hours with the company president on board and on the way to picking up the CEO in Houston, the engine wouldn't start due to a low battery. Never more peed off, as I had just run the plane five days before to ensure that the plane was ready.

Turns out that my local avionics had finally gotten around to addressing an earlier squawk list of mine a couple days prior and apparently ran the battery down. Wished they had used an EPU, but, oh well....

My bad...

There is Chill Spiller`s answer - I learned about prop-swinging not to start an oldy worldy aeroplane but due to flat batt. Thats is why we try to preserve the batt as much as poss.

Och, I hoped you'd pick me up in a shiny old warbird some day...
But yeah, handpropping seems to make sense when the batterie is low. So here's the next question. Don't you disconnect the batt from the electrical system once the aircraft is on the ground and shut down? Don't most fixed wing have additional outboard electrical sockets? We always disconnect the batterie when our choppers are on the ground as a precaution. It's only short before start up that we connect the batterie to the electrical system. In addition the batteries are checked along with regular maintenance every 100h. Of course we can't handprop a helicopter so all of them have an outboard socket for groundpower. One of the few models without outboard sockets are Robinsons. You need to bridge the batterie similar to a car's battery when it's empty. Abit too provisional for my taste. As a sidenote: Robinsons don't coun't as helicopters (they are far too cheap, ugly and small tiny).

Chill

It definitely does bring a chuckle when you get a call and get to "rescue" the brand new $350k airplane stuck at the holding point with the crappiest car you can find in the neighbourhood...

In my King Air days, the battery was turned on when external power was applied to serve as a surge protector. But on the Meridian and Aerostar, the master must be off according to procedure. And like you, there's no hand propping a Meridian or Aerostar.

And yes, the Robinson IS ugly, not to mention piston powered.

Ugh!

Kilrah that picture made my day! Thats the most provisional GPU I can think of. 12V car battery vs 24V A/C battery... But hey, as long as it works.

Thanks for your info too Bernoulli. We have catch diodes in most of our companies helicopters to prevent a power surge coming from the external power relais. Which is pretty annoying not to have. I think we only have one helicopter left that doesn't have a diode. From time to time the TOT Overtemp indicator gets activated by such a power surge when applying external power. That is before eng. startup! Which then in return means AOG until the situation is examined and the caution light shut off manually.

Bernoulli I approve you a good taste for rotorcraft! And yes, that engine is a sad thing. It sounds like a midget tractor.

Those aerobatic planes have 12V electrical systems, so it's just fine. Wouldn't want to lose the few extra kgs of a 24V battery in such performance aircraft...