Cranking Old Man

There was a time that cars were hand cranked to start as well. I don't hand crank my car and I don't see the need to hand crank a plane either.

If it's something that you enjoy, then have at it. It's not for me.

Thanks
Rudy

 

Have you ever needed to "pop" the clutch to start a car with a dead battery (as long as it had a manual transmission)?

These are survival skills.

Planeflyr

 

I can appreciate your experience, knowledge and info. You and my father would get along just fine. I learned the same things u did hanging around the airport. Most of the current generation cant appreciate these things and want to learn only a GPS instead of paying their dues and learning pilotage, dead reckoning, VOR & ADF naviagation.

Thanks for sharing.

It sure beats being stuck somewhere that is for sure. I have had my fair share of students thank me for teaching them the merits of handpropping after they became owners and instructors themselves and had to handrop a plane to get home for one reason or another.

Paul

 

Well said!

Kinda hard for a pre-solo candidate to understand the intent of the discussion. I never got any pleasure out of hand-propping an airplane that is for sure. But it sure beat walking.

 

Have you ever needed to "pop" the clutch to start a car with a dead battery

Yes I have, but as I have not owned a manual tran car in 20 years, not very helpful now.

There was also a time when rebuilding an engine in a car we did not have access to a lift, so we just removed all the fenders and what not till we have the front of the car down to the engine on the frame.

 

I think the point of this discussion is to make the distinction whether "to prop or not to prop". Certainly with a "modern" aircraft (sorry Switches ) with electrical systems, a starter, and presumably a good battery, this technique is becoming a lost skill.

I believe that every pilot should be taught the proper way to hand-prop an airplane because some day, somewhere, far from your home base you will return to the FBO after closing time and find that you *gasp* left the master switch on. Or you over (or under) primed the airplane, or a vapor lock hot start (fuel injected) or non-vapor in cold weather (carbureted) caused you to run the battery down, or the battery was on its last legs already. You all get the idea. It would be far, far better to know the way to properly and safely hand-prop an aircraft rather than trying to do it from just knowing that it can be done and risk an accident or tragedy or both.

The divergence here I'd like to bring up is actually the opposite of propping the airplane to affect a start but the task of "pulling the propeller through" during the pre-flight. This is also something which is not taught by most instructors due to the obvious safety implications and more likely due to the instructors themselves not knowing the proper and safe way to do this. I was always taught to do this as part of the pre-flight (and yes, I was also taught how to hand prop start an airplane) by my primary instructor and we would practice these skills on a periodic basis. The reasons for pulling the prop through were to 1) loosen any thick oil in cold weather, 2) check for weak compression on any of the cylinders, 3) listen for any unusual noises, and 4) feel for anything unusual which might indicate an internal engine problem.

I have done so religiously, and without exception, for my entire flying career.

It was numbers 3 and 4 which saved my bacon one day too!

In 13 years of flying (at the time) I had never experienced a concern. Then one morning, returning from Tucson a day after transporting a co-worker, his wife, and his infant son there for a visit with the in-laws, as I was pulling the prop through I reached a point where IT DIDN'T! I gave a hard yank and it went "clank-clink-clunk". Oh, S**T said I. I came around a second time with the same result.

Here is where the renter and the owner's thoughts differ. The renter will immediately say "What's wrong" while the owner will immediately say "How much!"

I knew I had either a $1500.00 problem (cylinder, valve, etc.) or a $15,000.00 problem (engine). It turned out to be the latter. Upon removing the oil filter it was caked with aluminum and in the oil screen was a chunk of aluminum the size of my thumb.

The really scary part of this is that the engine would have started up and run normally, while it was continuing to tear itself apart. If I would not have pulled the prop through and started and taken off, the best thing which could have happened is that the engine would have quit on the runway. In the more likely worse case I would have found myself wandering around the desert looking for a pay phone. It certainly wasn't going to make it back to Denver.

The engine was trashed internally and required an overhaul including case welding.

So for in the "what its worth" category I continue to recommend learning how to, and then performing a pull-through EVERY FLIGHT.

Planeflyr

 

Great Post!

I agree wholeheartedly. You had a great primary instructor and it will follow you your whole flying career.

I recently took my 17 year old nephew to a flight school to get his first intro flight out of North Las Vegas airport. I wanted to take him up my self but the flight school wanted a two hour checkout with one of their 250 hour 22 year old instructors. I chose to have my nephew go up with the instructor.

The instructor never came close to the prop on their preflight. I was shocked at his answer when i queeried him on this? He told us that "the flight school teaches us to tell our students to never touch or move the prop" I was shocked!

I pulled my nephew aside and told him a few things about propellers and that it is perfectly safe to move the prop and that it should be done on every preflight for the reasons you mentioned in your post.

I queered the instructor about his knowlede on propellers and it was obvious that he knew nothing about magnetos, p-leads or how to properly preflight an airplane.

He even went as far as to say if the "master swithch is off the engine will never fire!"

It is sad that people are paying $145 an hour of dual for this type of instruction.

Paul