Scudrunners

Hand propping gone bad is a steady source of bad wrecks. I’m always amazed more people don’t get hurt.

At my old tiny airport (CYSH) off the top of my head….

AME hand props a Maule (not mine) and it heads out by itself across the infield. Owner sues TC that AME works for in his day job. TC pays for the Maule

Cherokee from Kingdom in winter. Dead battery. Pilot hand props, off it goes. Hits a hangar so hard, it punches a hole in the door and keeps going. Destroys Cardinal inside.

Oh yeah. Summertime. Wanker hand props and across the ramp it goes. Hits a 182 head on, next to the fuel pumps. 182 is full of people. They are really shook up but not seriously injured. 182 is destroyed.

Batteries are really expensive. And when you hand prop, never have anyone sit in the airplane and hold the brakes.

Honorable mention to a retired TC Inspector Wayne Foy that hand propped one of Larry Loretto’s airplanes. It started and Wayne hung onto a strut and did the circling donut thing, engine roaring at full power until it got away from him and hit a sign and was destroyed.

Larry was enraged and went nuts when Wayne fibbed and said the parking brake didn’t work. Larry dragged the TSB out to the wreck and demonstrated the working parking brake.

TSB didn’t give a shit. They covered for Wayne - being retired TC, he had immunity - and no charges laid.

Funny part is Wayne ran around, telling everyone I was a terrible unsafe pilot. Close pal of Arlo’s.

All of the above is clearly justified by the incredible $40 that a Battery Tender Jr costs on Amazon.

I have more of those than you would believe and my batteries are always like new.

But I’m really stupid so don’t take care of your batteries. Kill them and then badly hand prop. Wreck your airplane, wreck other people’s airplanes and try to kill people as a bonus.

Nobody gives a fuck what I think, but I would change the regs requiring someone in the cockpit for hand prop, unless the aircraft had no electrical system when it left the factory.

We haven’t really learned much over the decades.

Remember that there will be no new causes of aviation accidents in 2023.

Bad Hand Job

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et0Njx4sYDg

Well he got it started. Did he try to fly it?

That’ll buff out !!

Used to hand prop the SE5A at a museum where I used to fly. (No electric start) Always one guy in the cockpit on the breaks with wheels chocked. It had an O235 with holdback mags so it wasn’t all that hard to start. The first couple of times I did it I will admit to near loss of bladder control when the engine caught….

Gave the ol’ Stinson a hand job on occasion.

Irritating to buy a battery every 2 years. Not ideal but it was engineered to not be hand-propped.

If done correctly, not earth shattering. But there are plenty of examples of it done wrong, and well…. They create threads on Internet forums.

Irritating to buy a battery every 2 years

Battery Tender Jr. If you don't have 120VAC they have solar powered ones.

When your voltage drops below 12.8VDC on a lead-acid battery, you are sulphating the plates. That's not good.