The Danger of Hand Swinging the prop in modern aircraft
 

Self explanatory. Not sure of the date of this CASA video but every student and flying instructor should watch it - that includes instructor course candidates. Hand swinging is dangerous at the best of times. if the aircraft will not start due to a flat battery then replace the battery rather than cutting corners and hand swinging. The point about losing all the electrics in flight after hang swinging with a flat battery is a good one. The video mentions remote areas. Too many occasions occur where commercial pressures have pilots hand swinging at flying schools.

Most aircraft these days will prohibit ifr flight after a hand swing. If you're vfr, just remember to count your fingers after a hand swing start...

Way to go*:

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....931b77e66f.gif

*pun intended

and don't forget to count your fingers after shaking hands with a flying school owner- they may have nicked some...!

Holy snappin’ ducksh!t.

He’ll get the Darwin Award eventually...

Okihara,

Thanks for posting that video, which I've seen before. I've always felt that pulling a propellor through during pre-flight is much more dangerous, precisely because you are not expecting the engine to start!

I don't know why Hand Swinging is peoples first thought when it comes to a dead battery on an Aircraft instead of finding someone with a vehicle and a set of jumper cables?

I’ve swung started a big Conti fitted to a Bonanza. Scarily easy. It’s a big country where assistance can be a looooong way away.

Fortunately I was better-prepared than old mate in the video who forgot Rule 1: Always assume one or both mags are ‘live’ and the propellor will kill you.

Jumper cables? Hmmmm. So many reasons why that is not a safe option in many cases. Where to clip them? What happens if they slip loose because of vibration? Cowls open? What happens when the prop wash breaks the cowls off? What about the crud that’s being blown into the engine bay?

As to taking off with a battery that’s not charging and an electrical system that’s not working properly after ‘swing starting’, the Darwin Awards include special mentions for those who repeatedly go out of their way to make sure they kill themselves.

Clinton wasn't so bad, one side of the cowls off, not so hard to put on with the engine at low idle and make sure they've got a good grip when you put them on! worked like a charm for me :D

Glad to hear it, Ix!

As always, so much - so very much - depends on systems knowledge and risk identification and mitigation. My observation is that systems knowledge is generally poor, which makes risk identification and mitigation - hmmm - ‘sub optimal’.

Or possibly lying on a number of cold stainless steel tables.....:eek:

Back in the 60s, night stop in Northern Burma (as it was then) Parked, on PSP, alongside a Grumman Goose, single pilot with 'business' pax. Goose has flat battery. Pilot decides to hand swing but has to use a chair to stand on to reach the prop! He had 'instructed' one of his pax in the RHS to ease the throttle back, once the engine caught. Engine started, pax increased power!!! Pilot went between prop tips and fuselage to reach through window to close throttle! I can still see the scene after nearly 60 years :eek:
As we found out later, the pilot , apparently, had taken the same Goose into a jungle river alighting to pick up M Nav Tony Melton who had ejactef from a Javelin en-route to the FE. Aviation can generate strange mixtures!!

Still, I'd rather lose the cowls over an arm. Probably less paperwork to fill out for CASA too.

Lots of hours instructing on them in the RAAF as well as crop-dusting. For vertically challenged short arses like myself it was a problem getting a hand to the top of the prop to get a good swing - hence the danger. Hand swing the more powerful engines like Cessna/Warrior types with tricycle undercarriage then swinging those props when they were horizontal could be hazardous.

While I never did it thank goodness, hand starting a Dakota engine could be done using a human chain with the bloke drawing the short straw had his hand on the prop and a chain of others holding his other hand and all pulling together. Better still tying a rope around the Dakota spinner and have a jeep pull the rope to get the engine started.

difficult to fill out paperwork missing arms and/or fingers too :D

Apart from personal electronic devices and installed as part of the aircraft lithium batteries are banned on passenger carrying aircraft. Unless things have changed.

The jump starting thing is just a big power bank. As much a personal electronic device as a phone.

Things have changed,
https://www.casa.gov.au/standard-pag...fely-batteries

Ignorance is bliss. I once hand started the rear engine of a Cessna 336, it had an unexpected starter motor problem. I was stranded at Smithton in Tasmania late one Friday evening with no one else around and didn't really expect it to work out, but it was too easy. Fortunately I had chocked it well...enough. The crazy things you do when you are young.

Even a small jump pack is bigger than 200whr

I have made similar posts on similar threads in the past and wanted to copy and paste my earlier post but cannot find it, so.....

Way back in early 1990 when I arrived in PNG for the first time, after doing my endorsement on the 'Bongo Van,' the CP lined both of us newbies up and said something like this;

'Right you blokes, I'm going to show you something that you one day may find useful! Consider the following scenario; It's Friday, 1700 hrs local and you are the other side of the Owen Stanleys at some Godforsaken bush strip:hmm:, and all you want to do is get back to Moresby for the Friday Night BBQ and associated pissup at the Aero Club:ok:. You climb into the Islander and try to start one engine only to find that the starter motor has gone U/S!:mad: So this is what you do to get out of the situation.'

He then proceeded to show us (Scott L and myself) exactly how to hand start a 260HP Lycoming.
Climb into the a/c and lock the brakes on. Also chock wheels if possible.
Exit a/c and set Prop at compression. Re enter a/c.
Prime engine as normal.
Ensure throttle is fully closed, Master switch and both mags ON.
Exit a/c.
Carefully swing prop, ensuring that all body weight is on front foot as you swing, thereby stepping back as you swing downwards.

After about three attempts the engine started and ran quite nicely at idle. I filed the demonstration away in the memory banks for future reference.:D

Would you believe it but about 18 months later on my second hitch there, that exact scenario occurred!! It was late on a Friday afternoon, I was on the other side of the Owen Stanleys with just enough time to get back to Moresby and the starter motor in the LH engine went bagarap!:mad:

I had no intentions of missing the BBQ/pissup at the Club Dero and had absolutely no desire to stay in the local Village either, so I performed the abovementioned procedure. It was extremely annoying, especially not having any success after swinging the prop for about 7 or 8 times. By that time what seemed to be the entire Village population was lined up watching me, laughing and (seemingly to me) jeering at the crazy 'long long Balusman.'

This simply made me more determined, and to my enormous relief, somewhere around the 25th attempt at swinging I heard a 'click' followed by a 'whizzing' noise and the engine fired up, idling happily away!:ok::ok:

I scrambled into the a/c through one of the rear doors, climbed into the L/H seat and had the other engine fired up quicktaim!
And I was in the air headed back to Moresby somewhat in haste.

Oh and as for all the Villagers; If I remember correctly, they all went very silent when the engine finally fired up and there were many many gaping mouths when I taxied out!
Made my day it did! :ok:

Since that time I have handstarted the engine in a Pawnee a few times, using the same technique ie both mags and master on with a fully closed throttle and it has worked ok.

However, I really would be quite happy if I never ever had to do that sort of thing again!:=

I’d prefer never have to swing start an engine (again) too.

But (as you and many others have learnt, pinky) it’s a very big and remote world out there.

Ironically, I learnt how to swing start an engine from a very informative video produced by CASA on the subject - from back in the day when CASA produced useful educational material.

Because a lot of aircraft are now 24 volt and the vehicles are 12, not enough voltage to work.
I have seen what happens when you plug 24 volts into a 12 volt aircraft. Blew the top off the battery box with enough force to wrap it around a 1" tall structural member and dent the skin outward for about 50% of the outline of lid.

I was stuck on several occasions long, long ago but fortunately was a pupil of the Tiger Moth Handswing Academy. First lesson was no need to swing too hard, just enough to take the blade through the impulse click, if it didn't click the coupling needed unstuck or otherwise remedied. Gipsy Major and Cirrus in Austers etc were easy enough but opposite rotation Lycoming and Continental were not, until I was advised to stand BEHIND the prop. This enables swinging with the right hand while the left steadies you against the cowling. Prime as usual, pull through four blades, then 'contact' and off she goes.

A couple of matters have been mentioned that again point up the importance of systems knowledge. Some aircraft have impulse couplings fitted to both magnetos. Some have an impulse coupling fitted to just one. Some have no impulse couplings and have retard breakers instead. Some have starter ‘vibrators’. Some have electronic ignition systems. Some need to be primed by an electric pump. Some have 12volt batteries, some 24.

Without knowing these things and their implications, efforts to swing or jump start an aircraft engine may at best just result in bigger biceps and, at worst, death. Major engine or airframe damage is somewhere in between.

The place to learn these things is in the comfort of your lounge chair with a cup of coffee before the big trip, not as the sun is setting over you and your aircraft in the middle of nowhere. It may be that you resolve never to try to swing or jump start the aircraft, either because it will be futile or entail risks you are not prepared to take. But make that decision on an informed basis while not under pressure. And have a ‘Plan B’ for the (fortunately unlikely) event of being stuck in the middle of nowhere.

There was even an approved procedure by some operators for Armstronging radials on some aircraft, eg DC-3. Use this photo for folk to identify safety lapses.


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....6256cc9c71.jpg

Technique seems fine, but I would suggest some form of footwear.

Interesting visual puzzle. If you stare at this picture long enough, eventually you will notice what appears to be an aircraft in it.

Good Heavens!:eek: So there is!!!:ooh:

Duck Pilot; The CP who did my endorsement training on the brum brums was Alan Yarnold, the then (and last, before Dz went bagarap) CP of Douglas Airways.

When the handswinging episode related above occurred, I was working for Simbu Aviation. Owner and CP was the now late Richard Rowe. And God rest his Soul!:sad: