Safety of propping by hand?

jrh

jrh

Well-Known Member
I'm interested to hear some views on the safety of propping aircraft by hand.

Last night I took a cross country flight with a primary student. Through a series of events, we didn't try to leave the airport to fly home (about 100 nm away) until about 1:00 a.m. When we tried to start the engine, the starter motor spun, but did not engage. We tried turning the prop through a couple times, as well as simply banging on the side of the starter motor to get the gear to unstick, with no luck. We spent the night in the plane (surprisingly, I got a fair amount of sleep).

This morning, the mechanic at the shop on the field looked at it and asked why I hadn't tried to hand prop it last night. Besides the fact that my college's pilot regulations prohibit hand propping, I told him that I didn't feel comfortable with that idea--I had heard stories of people getting hurt hand propping, I had never done it, I had never even seen it done, and I didn't think 1:00 a.m., alone on the tarmac with a student pilot at the controls was the best time to be trying something new. The mechanic just said, "Nah, hand propping is no big deal, it's safe...it's just something you could've done to get home."

In the end, he couldn't get the starter motor to engage, so he hand propped it with me at the controls, everything ran fine and we flew it back to our home base.

So what's the deal? Was I uninformed about how risky hand propping is? Or was this mechanic not the smartest guy in the world?
 
With proper training it is not a big deal and can be done safely.

Self-taught in the middle of the night is not "proper training". You made a good choice in my opinion.

Now go find someone with a lot of hand-propping experience to train you, then next time you'll be comfortable knowing how to do it safely.
 
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It is no biggy if you've done it and practice the proper/safe method. When I worked the line at Supermarine FBO at SMO, a couple of guys at the airport did handpropping almost daily.
The reason most prohibit it is because everybody thinks they can do it. As dangerous as it is, it looks fairly simple. All thats needed is for someone with no experience hand propping and getting a finger or arm chopped off then suing the training location.
Good judgment call on your part though!!!!!!!
 
handpropping a tri-gear airplane is also a bit more dangerous than a taildragger. When you handprop a conventional gear plane you actually end up pushing yourself away from the plane but when propping a tri-gear plane you have a tendency to want to fall into the prop arc. It can be done with proper training(and depending on the type of ignition system your airplane has) but not something to be tried for the first time in the middle of the night.
 
I actually read a old "I learned about flying from that" article from like a 10 year old copy of Flying magazine the other night, it was an almost identical situation, but the safety problem that you dont think about was that in that one, they were practising landings, so the instructor pulled the mixture on final, apparently he pulled it too far and the engine quit, then, because of the starter problem, they couldn't get the engine re-started, luckily the student did a good job of a dead stick landing, but it seems like something that could be a bad thing when flying over terrain, etc.
 
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so the instructor pulled the mixture on final, apparently he pulled it too far and the engine quit, then, because of the starter problem, they couldn't get the engine re-started,

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Generally the engine quits producing power when the mixture is pulled but the prop will continue to spin due to windmilling. The starter would have nothing to do with getting the engine re-started, barring the prop stopped windmilling which is highly unlikely. As long as the prop is spinning putting gas back into the equation the engine will start running again.
 
Seek out a local field that has a cub or champ for training. Learn about hand prop procedures from intructors there. I've around 20hrs in a 1946 Champ that has no electric starter, so you have to hand prop it. Safe if you know what you are doing. Make sure it is tied down and tires blocked well. Do it only with someone at the controls that you trust, and the person throwing the prop gives the commands, person inside, will echo commands before that action is done, then does it.

That all said, most modern engines are a bit higher compression, and harder to hand prop. Can be done, just a bit harder.

Always treat the prop like it can start at any time, hand prop, or not.
 
I had a similar experience. I had just got my license a few months before, and at the time I wasn't night current. I had a passenger with me, and the club plane rented, and it was getting late. Sure enough, the starter wouldn't engage, and being the scared 19yr old I was, I didn't keep the plane over night, out of town, and longer than I had checked it out. So a young mechanic looked the plane over, and wanted to prop start it. I asked if he had ever done it, and he said no, but he knew how. I told him that I wasn't that comfortable, but he wanted to try anyways, and luckily it worked and I made it home.

Funny thing is, my initials are "jrh" also...
 
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handpropping a tri-gear airplane is also a bit more dangerous than a taildragger. When you handprop a conventional gear plane you actually end up pushing yourself away from the plane but when propping a tri-gear plane you have a tendency to want to fall into the prop arc. It can be done with proper training(and depending on the type of ignition system your airplane has) but not something to be tried for the first time in the middle of the night.

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I agree. I was "properly trained" to hand prop by an instructor who flew a homebuilt FlyBaby with no electric starter. I now feel comfortable handproping a tail dragger with a small wood prop, but would still hesitate to and prop a tri-gear 172 with a heavier metal prop. I'm sure I could do it, but I would be kicking my leg back so hard on every try that I would be falling onto my back to the tarmac. I would now attempt it as a last resort and in the best of conditions (a very competent pilot at the controls), but would never consider it if I did not have practice in the proper technique and body movements already.
 
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