skychaser, don't worry about them or me too much. Although we didn't use chocks, the aircraft were NEVER left untied. An instructor and engineers did go over the process of handstarts, the reasons why, other considerations, and we all were given a go at handstarting a 152 if we wanted to.
The point is that this seems to be an exception from the rule. I've met heaps of pilots here in Darwin over the last two years, almost all of whom had only just finished flight training, almost all of which have had little or no training in this respect. Since I've started working, and especially since this accident, even more pilots have been pointing out the lack of training they have recieved.
Incidentaly, I couldn't find any mention in the VFR Day syllabus, though it was mentioned in the National Competency Standards.
For both PPL & CPL, "Aircraft started manually as required"
Very comprehensive I would say.
