In the Howard Hughes movie "Hell's Angels", they show a big ol' engine being started that way, I'm pretty sure. It's been a while since I borrowed it from the municipal library in Sault Ste. Marie.
-istp
Have you ever hand propped an aircraft?
Moderators: lilfssister, North Shore, sky's the limit, sepia, Sulako, I WAS Birddog
-
shower of sparks
- Rank 3
- Posts: 121
- Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 8:17 am
The battery wasn't completely dead - it wouldn't turn the engine over.
So, I let it sit a few minutes to try to let the voltage rise a bit, and sure enough, there was enough oomph left in the battery to drive the shower of sparks when I heaved the blade through, and off it went.
Thing to keep in mind that a battery that doesn't have the power to crank the engine over, will still have enough power to run the shower of sparks.
With all the AD's out on impulse couplings ($$$ every 500 hours) the shower of sparks/retard breaker really doesn't look that bad, even though it is truly ancient.
I remember another time, a friend of mine in his S-1T had his starter pack it in at an aerobatic contest. So, I hand-bombed his AEIO-360 for every flight after that, including on the way home. He was really sharp on the priming.
So, I let it sit a few minutes to try to let the voltage rise a bit, and sure enough, there was enough oomph left in the battery to drive the shower of sparks when I heaved the blade through, and off it went.
Thing to keep in mind that a battery that doesn't have the power to crank the engine over, will still have enough power to run the shower of sparks.
With all the AD's out on impulse couplings ($$$ every 500 hours) the shower of sparks/retard breaker really doesn't look that bad, even though it is truly ancient.
I remember another time, a friend of mine in his S-1T had his starter pack it in at an aerobatic contest. So, I hand-bombed his AEIO-360 for every flight after that, including on the way home. He was really sharp on the priming.
Hand-started a 185 and 180 on floats.
185 with dad at controls and mom in the back (haha, she was nervous to fly and then the plane wouldn't start to get back home...perfect timing) Hurt my shoulder on the 185 as it took a while and you need to throw pretty hard. I think my prospects of becoming an MLB pitcher are nil now.
185 with dad at controls and mom in the back (haha, she was nervous to fly and then the plane wouldn't start to get back home...perfect timing) Hurt my shoulder on the 185 as it took a while and you need to throw pretty hard. I think my prospects of becoming an MLB pitcher are nil now.
"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." -Nietzsche
rsandor, great picture. I saw a cartoon somewhat like that years ago except it was a WW1 German biplane bomber of some type. Prussian soldiers, complete with spiked helmets, were all in a line. First one had his arm hooked around the propeller blade. Four more had arms linked. The last soldier had a large dog by the leash. A few feet in front was another soldier with a cat in a cage, about to be released. A very funny cartoon.
Hank Parsons, when he was running Parsons Airways in Flin Flon, used to tell about starting an old Bellanca Aircruiser (CF-AWR) which had a P&W Hornet engine and an ignition booster much like the early Beavers except this one was hand cranked. He claimed he was able to prime the engine, rotate the prop just over TDC and then crank the booster and the engine would start. Since nobody had any time on a Bellanca or a Hornet engine, we all doubted this claim under our breath. I was flying a Fairchild Husky which has an inertial starter and a booster coil. I was way up in the boonies on an island with a rapids downstream so I healed up on a sand beach and was going to start the engine and pull myself off. But the damn starter crapped out. Then I thought of Hanks trick and tried it. Damn if the trick didn't work and I got started. When I got back home, I was bragging and everyone said it was impossible to start an R985 that way, so I went out and showed them. Two years later, I was still trying to show them when they sold the airplane. It never ever worked for me again.
I still get a kick out of some nervous student twin pilots who open the storm window, holler "CLEAR LEFT" and then start the right engine.
In my humble opinion, hand spiking a 4 cylinder taildragger is safe enough if it is done properly but with anything else, use a whole lot of caution. It has been proven in these posts that 6 cylinder engines and engines with "shower of spark" retard breakers can be hand started but if most people attempt this, someone is going to get hurt. If you chop your head off, what are you going to hang your headphones on.
Anyone remember the Beaver pilot who chopped an arm off , applied a tourniquet and flew the airplane home to Thunder Bay? Do not apply a tourniquet to you neck if you get a head injury!!!
Hank Parsons, when he was running Parsons Airways in Flin Flon, used to tell about starting an old Bellanca Aircruiser (CF-AWR) which had a P&W Hornet engine and an ignition booster much like the early Beavers except this one was hand cranked. He claimed he was able to prime the engine, rotate the prop just over TDC and then crank the booster and the engine would start. Since nobody had any time on a Bellanca or a Hornet engine, we all doubted this claim under our breath. I was flying a Fairchild Husky which has an inertial starter and a booster coil. I was way up in the boonies on an island with a rapids downstream so I healed up on a sand beach and was going to start the engine and pull myself off. But the damn starter crapped out. Then I thought of Hanks trick and tried it. Damn if the trick didn't work and I got started. When I got back home, I was bragging and everyone said it was impossible to start an R985 that way, so I went out and showed them. Two years later, I was still trying to show them when they sold the airplane. It never ever worked for me again.
I still get a kick out of some nervous student twin pilots who open the storm window, holler "CLEAR LEFT" and then start the right engine.
In my humble opinion, hand spiking a 4 cylinder taildragger is safe enough if it is done properly but with anything else, use a whole lot of caution. It has been proven in these posts that 6 cylinder engines and engines with "shower of spark" retard breakers can be hand started but if most people attempt this, someone is going to get hurt. If you chop your head off, what are you going to hang your headphones on.
Anyone remember the Beaver pilot who chopped an arm off , applied a tourniquet and flew the airplane home to Thunder Bay? Do not apply a tourniquet to you neck if you get a head injury!!!
The average pilot, despite the somewhat swaggering exterior, is very much capable of such feelings as love, affection, intimacy and caring.
These feelings just don't involve anyone else.
These feelings just don't involve anyone else.
-
Rudder Bug
- Rank 10
- Posts: 2735
- Joined: Thu Jun 23, 2005 11:09 pm
- Location: Right seat but I own the seat
My scariest one was a 185 on a mad sea late in fall. The female pax onboard, instructed to switch the mags off if I disappear and she hears Splatch.
The engine was cold and started on first attempt with mags on, my short and tiny arm holdind a ring of rope tied around the hand-hold on the cowling.
Other than that, a few hundred hours in tail draggers, ski or seaplanes with no electrical and 3-4 times with Beavers on floats, from behind, of course. Only once with a rope on a piston Otter with a boot. It worked.
All this to mention just a few ones, I could chat about it all night.
From that I think everything over 150 HP deserves waiting till you can access a boost.
The engine was cold and started on first attempt with mags on, my short and tiny arm holdind a ring of rope tied around the hand-hold on the cowling.
Other than that, a few hundred hours in tail draggers, ski or seaplanes with no electrical and 3-4 times with Beavers on floats, from behind, of course. Only once with a rope on a piston Otter with a boot. It worked.
All this to mention just a few ones, I could chat about it all night.
From that I think everything over 150 HP deserves waiting till you can access a boost.
Flying an aircraft and building a guitar are two things that are easy to do bad and difficult to do right
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Yd_QppdGks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Yd_QppdGks
DC-3
Did the DC-3, July 14 1993 CF-NTF 3 times YSF-ZFD-YBE-to complete the sched (freight).
No rope straight up by hand. Have to admit the most amazed person was myself. Capt I was with was Eddie McIvor at that time he was late sixties swore it could be done. I didn't believe it, watched him go out and through the blade a few times while I was upstairs waiting for it to catch. After about a dozen tries with no luck I figured he wouldn't be doing it if it wheren't doable so I went out and gave it a try and after about the fifth swing I had 12 ft of propeller swinging in front of me. Holly Crap the old fker was right!! God bless ya "Steady Eddie" where ever ya are.
Before that the only thing that I had flipped over was an old 1946 Aeronca (sp?) Champ.
Had a dead starter on the Navajo one day In Sachigo Lk Ont and tried to hand balm it. I had no luck there. The engine was really new and quite tight. Untill reading this post I had the feeling that the TSIO 540 Lyc couldn't be done.
No rope straight up by hand. Have to admit the most amazed person was myself. Capt I was with was Eddie McIvor at that time he was late sixties swore it could be done. I didn't believe it, watched him go out and through the blade a few times while I was upstairs waiting for it to catch. After about a dozen tries with no luck I figured he wouldn't be doing it if it wheren't doable so I went out and gave it a try and after about the fifth swing I had 12 ft of propeller swinging in front of me. Holly Crap the old fker was right!! God bless ya "Steady Eddie" where ever ya are.
Before that the only thing that I had flipped over was an old 1946 Aeronca (sp?) Champ.
Had a dead starter on the Navajo one day In Sachigo Lk Ont and tried to hand balm it. I had no luck there. The engine was really new and quite tight. Untill reading this post I had the feeling that the TSIO 540 Lyc couldn't be done.
Go work someplace else. If they don't maintain their batteries/starters, what else do they not maintain?it a norm at our place every flight.. we have to hand prop our 182 planes
I remember a banner tow outfit in florida that had cracked spars on their supercubs. They wrapped the spars in tinfoil to reinforce them. I wish I was making this up.
Run (do not walk) away from outfits like this. Regardless of whether or not this is legal (I am sure it is in some places in the world) the laws of physics are unchanging and unyielding.
Hey – Cat, I heard that you were once on the water in Paint Hills with the right engine starter U.S.. You then had the crewman go out on the cowling – lean forward – grab a blade – jump off the cowling pulling the prop through and then ending up in the water below. Now I must say that this was O.H.’s pep talk to me - my first day on the job in Moose.
-
snaproll20
- Rank 7
- Posts: 636
- Joined: Tue Jun 01, 2004 7:50 pm
Heard of a guy who got thrown over the wing of a 185 when the prop caught in his raincoat.
I have done a few, this and that. Always behaved with total fear near props which saved me on one occasion.
Flooded Cessna 170 and could not start it, so off with mags, mixture off, throttle wide open and a friend in the front seat. Flipped the prop, ducking away as per my special SOP (Scared of Prop) and the bloody thing opened up full throttle in my face. I grabbed the wingstrut as it roared by with my three passengers onboard, heading for the Esso refuelling station. It took weeks to get the grass out of the toes of my shoes from being dragged. (The plane had stopped by then.)
My partly-pilot-trained friend managed to somehow stop it.
Turned out that turning off the ignition key only rotated the whole assembly in the panel, achieving nothing, so I inadvertently hand-propped with the ignition on and a snoot full of gas in the carb.
I have done a few, this and that. Always behaved with total fear near props which saved me on one occasion.
Flooded Cessna 170 and could not start it, so off with mags, mixture off, throttle wide open and a friend in the front seat. Flipped the prop, ducking away as per my special SOP (Scared of Prop) and the bloody thing opened up full throttle in my face. I grabbed the wingstrut as it roared by with my three passengers onboard, heading for the Esso refuelling station. It took weeks to get the grass out of the toes of my shoes from being dragged. (The plane had stopped by then.)
My partly-pilot-trained friend managed to somehow stop it.
Turned out that turning off the ignition key only rotated the whole assembly in the panel, achieving nothing, so I inadvertently hand-propped with the ignition on and a snoot full of gas in the carb.
