Uh-oh. They know

[Squaretail]

Personally I keep a big ring of old airplane keys I've found over the years. Its come in handy a lot of times. Not that airplanes are terribly hard to break into in the first place.

[Colonel]

I hate magneto switches.

Gimme a couple toggles and a push button for the starter.

[Slick Goodlin]

Gimme a couple toggles and a push button for the starter.

Starter? You’ve gone soft…

[Colonel]

Yes, but ... where were you when we were hand-propping the R-985 in the Stearman?

Even the three-blade AEIO-540 is not easy to hand-prop. The back of the blades are SHARP
and the angles are all wrong. Your wife may grumble, but all the rings come off.

I hate those Bendix ignition switches. Complicated. Moving parts. Expensive. Unnecessary.
Like a stupid fucking German car.

Even a lowly Citabria/Decathlon has got it right! Two toggles switches for the magnetos and
a push button switch for the starter.

Never understood those rotary switches for the magnetos in the weird old warbirds. Complicated
and unreliable.

Freddy Cabanas flew his S-2A/S-2B/S-2C's all over the place for decades, and never took the
key out of the ignition. Who's going to steal it? Maybe Jimmy Goggins - I always admire that
he never talked, and did his time in prison - but he's dead now. Not many dead people steal airplanes.

http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=m ... dc7e310da4

Freddy never locked his vehicles, either. Not hard to catch a car thief on the seven mile bridge,
which is the only way out of Key West. When I retire, I want the job of catching car thieves
in Key West. What are they going to do, load them on the cruise ships like some stupid Hollywood
movie?

[Colonel]

I know I'm different and that's a bad thing, but ...

What's wrong with a row of toggle switches? From left to right:

1) master
2) left magneto
3) right magneto
4) electric boost pump
5) alternator field
6) avionics master
7) nav lights & beacon/strobe
8) taxi light
9) landing light

If you don't like the pushbutton starter and think it can be bumped accidentally,
get a guarded momentary toggle. Nice if you can reach it with your throttle hand.



A little overkill IMHO but whatever floats your boat. I've been starting using a metal pushbutton
switch for 51 fucking years now on the Maule without any problems:



Show of hands. Who here has had an aircraft stolen? Anyone steals one of my airplanes, I just have
to look for the cloud of black smoke. Everyone that knows how to fly my airplanes are already dead.