JHW
En-Route
I've always been one of those thick-headed types that didn't really get why folks think hand propping is a big deal.
but I now understand
this evening I landed and shut down at the fuel pumps, got a coke out of the machine while I waited for my wife & kids to show up so I could take them home. A couple of clean-cut looking kids, maybe 18, showed up and proceeded to pre-flight a 172. It seemed very "thorough but rehearsed" in a typical part-141 sort of way. Then one got in the left seat and the other proceeded to attempt to hand prop the engine. I was a long way away but I could tell at a glance he was never going to get it going.
I finished my coke and they were still at it, so i went over and told him if he'd get in the plane I'd get him going. By then he looked pretty tired tired, he looked grateful and got in. I stuck my head in the window and instructed them what I wanted them to do and set the throttle & mixture where I wanted them. Then I walked around to the prop and was about to give it a pull when they started waving at me. I went back to the window and he mentioned that I might want to stand on the other side, the way he had been doing. I told him that no, I wanted to pull down on the prop and with that big fat cowling I really needed to be in front since I'm no gymnast. He said yes, he was pulling down on the prop too.
He then proceeded to lecture me that moving a propeller by hand could be dangerous, and that his school taught them that if they must turn the prop to always turn it backwards. He seemed quite pleased to have taught me something. He must have been the CFI in that pair.
I thanked him for the advice, rechecked the control settings and the brakes, then got him started on the 2nd pull (although I have to admit I used my unsafe-rotation-direction technique). As I sit here now, I wonder if he is sitting at his home marveling at the guy he met out in the sticks who insisted on being old-fashioned instead of adopting newer, safer practices.
but I now understand
this evening I landed and shut down at the fuel pumps, got a coke out of the machine while I waited for my wife & kids to show up so I could take them home. A couple of clean-cut looking kids, maybe 18, showed up and proceeded to pre-flight a 172. It seemed very "thorough but rehearsed" in a typical part-141 sort of way. Then one got in the left seat and the other proceeded to attempt to hand prop the engine. I was a long way away but I could tell at a glance he was never going to get it going.
I finished my coke and they were still at it, so i went over and told him if he'd get in the plane I'd get him going. By then he looked pretty tired tired, he looked grateful and got in. I stuck my head in the window and instructed them what I wanted them to do and set the throttle & mixture where I wanted them. Then I walked around to the prop and was about to give it a pull when they started waving at me. I went back to the window and he mentioned that I might want to stand on the other side, the way he had been doing. I told him that no, I wanted to pull down on the prop and with that big fat cowling I really needed to be in front since I'm no gymnast. He said yes, he was pulling down on the prop too.
He then proceeded to lecture me that moving a propeller by hand could be dangerous, and that his school taught them that if they must turn the prop to always turn it backwards. He seemed quite pleased to have taught me something. He must have been the CFI in that pair.
I thanked him for the advice, rechecked the control settings and the brakes, then got him started on the 2nd pull (although I have to admit I used my unsafe-rotation-direction technique). As I sit here now, I wonder if he is sitting at his home marveling at the guy he met out in the sticks who insisted on being old-fashioned instead of adopting newer, safer practices.