As Chuck Glider says, "Generally solo hand propping is done from behind the prop with controls within reach"

At Brown's Seaplane establishment, Winter Haven Florida, the J3 Cub prop was swung FROM BEHIND by the instructor who was standing on the float, holding onto the struts.
On a strong wind day with ripples or waves,this could have been even more interesting....

They sent me solo - if I bought my own seaplane to fly solo in. That didn't happen.

Good idea. I was once carrying out a "running change" in a Bulldog. I was in the process of getting back in the right side and was standing on the wing. The student, having finished solo circuits, hadn't set the parking brake properly and the aircraft began to roll forwards. The student suddenly saw the aircraft movement and without warning jammed on the toe brakes. I was thrown towards the spinning prop but just managed to grab the screen frame with my fingertips... Very close.

Mary,

You should have done your rating in Canada. Solo flying is a required part of the syllabus. :ok:

No Christmas Propstrikes Please
 

Batteries and starters are challenged in the cold.

Fuel does not vaporise that well in the cold.

Spark plugs ice up.

FBO staff is scarce; so no preheat or battery boost available.

It all ends up with hand propping.

Best to arrange ahead of time for preheat equipment to be available.

A hot engine is always on contact.
 

NTSB report:
"On July 26, 2018, about 1650 eastern daylight time, the private pilot of a Cessna 182P, N1311S, was fatally injured when he was struck by the propeller during a preflight inspection of the airplane at the Cleveland Regional Jetport (RZR), Cleveland, Tennessee. "
"The pilot's wife reported to Federal Aviation Administration personnel that they had flown to RZR earlier that day, and her husband performed a normal shutdown of the engine utilizing the mixture control. They performed errands then returned to the airport. She reported to law enforcement that she was outside the airplane behind the passenger door facing her seat, and her husband was performing a preflight inspection of the airplane. She heard the "propeller move" which she described as unusual and heard the engine like it was starting or trying to start. She looked up and noticed her husband fall to the ground. She thought the propeller stopped at that time, and went inside the fixed-base-operator to summon help. She also indicated that the ignition key was in her husband's pocket at the time of the accident. The airplane's ignition switch and key were retained for operational testing."

A live mag? Very important to actually check that your ignition key/mag switches actually grounds both the mags in the off position.

magnetos are turned "off" by shorting them. This means if a wire or the switch breaks, the engine will keep running, what you want when flying. On the ground though if a wire comes loose or a switch breaks etc, you may have a live mag, even if the switch is off. There is no circuit breaker or anything else to disable the mags. They are designed so that failures in any switch, wiring etc are unlikely to stop the engine.

It is worth learning how to do a mag check prior to engine shutdown (and get into the habit of doing it each shutdown). If that ever indicates you may have a live prop, get someone to inspect the mags and avoid handling the prop (even put a sign on the prop indicating it is live).

Always treat props as live, always move the prop only if you are in a position to pull your hands away and never leave any part of your body in the arc of the prop when rotating it.

At idle. Right off - mag drop - back to both. Left off - mag drop - back to both.
Both off for an instant, back on fast covers last possibility.
Could vapour mixture ignite to give a kick, without a plug spark, on a hot engine, at compression? This engine had been shut down for long enough that glowing carbon should not be possible. Outside temp 31°C, and in the sun, higher under the cowling.

I don't think this has been posted,

He wasn't (I hope) trying to start that engine. Pulling it through to check compressions, more likely.
Personally I wouldn't hand swing anything with more than two blades.
I've had a 180 Lycoming with a four blade prop start with keys in my pocket, first flight of the day, just out of the hangar, temp -10 Deg C. No prime, mixture lean. Throttle at idle. Chocks in front of the wheels
That was because it was normally a cow to start on a cold day and I wanted to unstick the oil before starting it. Ran for long enough to walk round the wing. That was a broken mag lead.

I had a similar experience as a staff instructor/tug pilot at Lasham.

We were pulling all the aircraft out of the hanger at the start of the day. The chief tug pilot was just getting in a Rallye 180 that need to be moved but he realised he had omitted to do a compression check. To save time I offered to turn the prop. We did the normal safety calls and responses. On the second swing the engine picked up at fast idle. I think he was more shocked than I as he immediately beckoned me around to inspect the engine controls whilst keeping his hands in the air. The tumbler switch controlling the mags was off with the key removed. The switch had failed to earth one or both magnetos.

Perhaps it helped that I had done my PPL on Tiger Moths trained by ex-RAF instructors who had drilled into me the danger of swinging any prop.

Propeller hazard
 

I just stumbled upon the report of a horrific accident involving a student pilot who walked into the prop of a C152. The flight school in question was routinely disembarking one student and embarking the next with the engine running.

That seems insane, and not just because of the prop danger. But the report did not explicitly condemn the practice. Although failure to shut down the engine was listed as a contributory cause (!), the recommendations talked vaguely about the importance of awareness of the dangers of spinning props among students and passengers.

Is it ever acceptable practice to allow people to enter/exit a small aircraft with the engine running? Why would this ever be permitted ? Whatever permitted means in this context.

Elf & Safety paranoia.
 

Our FOB expressly forbids the practice. The problem is not how good and safe one crew is at doing it, but the easily led who see it being done and try to copy....................

You have a link to the report? I know of quite some places where they change students with engine running.
On one side, for scenic flights and unfamiliar pax loading/unloading I would follow the never-ever-do-that.
On the other side, a student on training must have some kind of common sense not to walk in front of a running prop.
I know, I AM an old fart from the days when common sense was more common.

Swapping out students with a running engine, while safe if performed correctly (and depending on aircraft type), is not really the best practice when teaching students. It needs to be emphasised to anyone new to flying that being a pilot is not just about handling the aircraft in flight but rather all aspects of safety around the aircraft when airside. That includes the safe startup and shutdown of the engine as well as the use of mags, throttle, mixture and pitch to manage the prop. By simply turning up to a running aircraft and jumping in the student is missing a lot of the learning experience. Not a good idea in my opinion.

Only slightly off topic:

I am becoming increasingly concerned at the number of "professional" pilots I see walking through the prop arcs. Any links to decent educative material relevant to the dangers of this activity gratefully received.

MJG

MJG. The only education I got was from crusty old FSGTs at Pt Cook. If you didn't walk around the prop on your walkaround they would belt your helmet far harder than any QFI. And then occasionally, you would hear a cough and see a prop turnover with noone in the cockpit.....

Exactly. That was my 'other' concern with the practice. You would loose out on all the essential stuff associated with preflighting, pre-start checks, comms with ground, shut down checks (do they also skip power checks?) and I worry that would change the way a student learns to take responsibility for the whole operation.

Untill I read the above discussion before Christmas I 'thought' I was careful when ground handling handling my 80 h.p. Rotax powered Rans at my strip.
It set me thinking on how I might operate more safely and wrote the following proto checklist; it's initially for discussion here - bearing in mind it's one man alone at the strip and not so complicated please that one abandons using any checks.

Precaution Treat the Propeller as Always LIVE - A handling regime.
With hot or cold engine even with both ignition 'kill' switches turned to off, turning the propeller could cause it to suddenly fire either forwards or in reverse due to a hot spot or a single 'kill' switch wiring could have an intermittent open circuit.
Rotax never-the-less require the propeller of a cold engine to be rotated forwards by hand many turns to blow crankcase oil back up into the tank to check oil level, & to ascertain there is no hydraulic lock.
Precautions :-
a) Always chock the main wheels.
b) Tie back stick.
c) Throttle closed.
d) Both Ignition switches OFF.
e) Stand on firm ground and rotate the propeller keeping one's arms, body and clothing away from its arc.
f) Pulling the a/c out of its hangar holding the propeller roots reqires equal care.
g) Once in the cockpit ready for engine start, shout "CLEAR PROP" and wait at least 7 to 10 seconds for it to register to anyone unseen outside before operating the starter..
If possible avoid post flight prop/compression checking, it is even more risky.
But, with care as above, the propeller might need turning to re-position an upwards pointing blade to clear the hangar entrance beam for pushing back inside.

Could readers kindly comment ?

My 2c - I am not overly familiar with Rotaxes but understand many are shut down by turning mags off rather than cutting mixture(?). If so, in that case you would be likely to detect a live mag on shutdown because the engine would keep running so you would know if there was an issue there. Effectively you are forced to do a live mag check every shutdown.

Whilst not impossible, I am guessing it would be pretty unlikely for a mag to cut OK on shutdown and then go live afterwards.

Also for the prop to fire you need a suitable fuel mixture available in at least one cylinder - I would assume that would be unlikely if the aircraft hadn't been recently running. If a warm engine though... I would be more cautious.

I think if you are doing the oil pull-through process you require, on a cold engine that you personally have shut down from the last flight, handling the prop would be unlikely to be a high risk.

Doesn't mean you treat props casually - ie don't stand where you could be struck if moving it.

(NB If hand swinging to start, rather than to check oil or adjust blade position, that should involve more care).

That is me personally. You need to make your own decisions though. Other's may have differing opinions.

Twice thanks,

And yes i) I've owned it O.K. thus for 10 years
and
ii) Post flight switch off is done each ignition in turn - no weak cut offwith the Bing carb's.

"Whilst not impossible, I am guessing it would be pretty unlikely for a mag to cut OK on shutdown and then go live afterwards."
As mag switches earth the mags, any break would make the mag live.
Vehicle ignition switches fail dead - and the engine stops.
Mag switches fail live, so the engine doesn't stop, and you keep flying, still with 2 mags.

Engines running crew changes were often done on the RAF C130K fleet. The Air Loadmaster (ALM) would exit first from the crew entrance door and screen the engines off with his very long intercomm lead providing a 'fence' to remind crews not to turn into the propeller arcs. As far as I know without any incidents occurring. The ALM would renter the aircraft last.

I remember, around about 1970, a Britannia aircraft, on engine start at night, one of the start up crew walked in to a propeller with fatal results. (It was necessary for a start crew member to ensure that the hold the propeller during engine start to ensure that it was not turning in the wrong direction at the beginning of the start sequence, so they would always be very close to the propellers). I think that the Board of Inquiry concluded that the bright apron lighting caused the propeller to appear to be stationary due to the stroboscopic effect.

From Wikipedia:
The stroboscopic effect is a visual phenomenon caused by aliasing that occurs when continuous motion is represented by a series of short or instantaneous samples. It occurs when the view of a moving object is represented by a series of short samples as distinct from a continuous view, and the moving object is in rotational or other cyclic motion at a rate close to the sampling rate. It also accounts for the "wagon-wheel effect", so-called because in video, spoked wheels on horse-drawn wagons sometimes appear to be turning backwards.

Exactly.

I would suspect switches more likely to fail with the engine running (due sustained vibration). Why a mag check on shutdown important.

live changeovers
 

I was one of those cadets, at 15 I would walk up the wing and stand by the pilot in the front seat and get the cadet out one side and the next one in the other side with the engine idling. Then strap them in and exit back down the wing rearwards. We had very strict procedures instilled in us including never approaching a prop, even if the engine was off. I can't imagine the "elfansafety" letting kids do that now.

Fast forward 10 years and I'm stood under the nose wheel of a 747 in the middle of a taxiway, tug has removed the towbar and I'm waiting, hopefully, for the "OK, thanks, see you next time" on the intercom. It's a lonely place and with zero training, except cadet experience around live aircraft.

I was taught never to handle a prop unless you knew the mag switches were off. That was enough for me so never ever touched one. What amazed me though on the Hastings and Lancaster was the flight eng aligning all the props the same way.

It looked neat and as the flt eng he probably knew the mags were off.

I think on the Shack someone managed to pass through both prop arcs.

Tail rotors also bite
 

In just over 12 years at first line on helicoptors I saw a number of close calls with tail rotors, fortunately only had one myself due to a Wesex pilot turning before the marshaller gave the signal during a 3 ship 'formation' taxi landing and shut down. At 6'2" it was frighteningly close to my head. Towards the end of my helicoptor first line experience I worked on flat tops in the dark. You know that the tail rotor is there, you can hear it and feel the turbulence from it, you know it is at head hight but can't see a thing. When attaching the tail lashings to a running helicopter the drill is to monkey walk in, knees bent head down, attach the lashing to the ac lashing point and crawl out to the elephant's foot lashing point. Used to scare the last meal I ate out of me every time. How more fatalities don't occur is a mystery and a credit to the training and professionalism of those who operate as ground crew on embarked helicoptors. There is nowhere as dark as a flight deck out in the ocean under 'darkened ship' conditions. The most effecient killing machine known to man has to be the tail rotor of a helicopter, the final twist being a helicoptor tail rotor under 'darkened ship' conditions in a heavy sea. Having said that they tend not to start of their own accord like props on piston engined ac can and do.

I have a question, something I've been wondering about for a while..

At my gliding club, our Motor Falke is usually last to go in the hangar. And so first to come out. Routinely, whoever is moving it will pull it forward by the prop. I've done this a couple of times myself, but since reading this thread, I've not touched it. I did ask someone about it, and was told "no, no - prop couldn't possibly turn by itself". There was some mechanical reason given as to why this couldn't happen, possibly magneto-related, but it was a while ago and I can't remember the exact basis.

Could someone please tell me I am not nuts to be leery of this? I just have a nagging feeling that if I'm right, it's something I should be mentioning to our CFI..

Just a question about Rotax 912 and other derivatives. I put together a Merlin GT from a kit and it had dual electronic ignition, so not like a mag with earthing? It was a while back, so I might be fuddled...