Cessna 150 checkist

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

PC, apologies if your engine really does have SoS mags. Very unusual!

Generators? - oh yes, common on older engines!

[9 lives]

and run the battery down with no success, a hand swing of the prop will no longer work to start it, you're going to have to use ground power

I did not explain myself well. Many starters on Lycomings, once engaged, will not disengage the pinion from the ring gear, until started with the starter motor. With the pinion engaged, and coasting as you pull through, you likely cannot pull it through fast enough to get it started.

Thus, if you suspect that the starter will not start the engine, and you might have to hand prop it, don't attempt a starter start at all, to prevent getting the starter locked engaged.

[cockney steve]

After the engine starts the charging system will provide a very high charging current. This hard on the charging system, can damage radio`s but most importantly is absolutely death in the aircrafts` battery,

Bit of a sweeping generalisation, that!.
The charging apparatus, wether Dynamo or Alternator (and some are designed with residual magnetism , so are self-exciting even with a totally flat battery) In either case, are speed-dependent for output.

Assuming you have hand-propped (and, yes, you can do it without an impulse mag) your initial charge rate will be the maximum the apparatus can deliver at those revs....so, keeping the revs down will reduce the charge-rate....meanwhile, the voltage on the battery-plates will rise rapidly as they take a surface- charge.....this opposes the charging voltage, (which is governed to prevent overcharging and "boiling" away the distilled water content of the sulphuric acid electrolyte)

Unfortunately, this charging circuit is normally a compromise and it will NOT deep-charge a "flat" battery....to preserve battery -life, do not deep-cycle apply a regular float-charge and, yes, avoid high-current charging ,other than the surface-charge which is removed during a "normal" easy start.

Radios should not be affected if you minimise voltage-spikes usually caused by disconnecting a slave"jump" battery prematurely....about 2 minutes of fast-idle should see a drop in charge-rate as both batteries are linked and their surface-charges equalise.

Above, of course, applies to Lead-Acid types, sealed,Gel or "wet".

[9 lives]

Cockney Steve,

Interesting and valuable information - the kind of detail about aircraft systems that a pilot might learn by reading....... The flight manual for the aircraft!

How else would they know for certain what type of battery was installed, or alternator vs generator? Or, as BPF correctly mentioned, the proper selection of the battery master for the use of ground power!

Sure, there are some with oodles of experience with aircraft, who pretty well have some flight manuals memorized, and the aircraft systems equally so, but others are new, and need the resource. The regulations cannot tell who is who, so everyone is required to carry the flight manual - just in case!

If a placard is missing, and the pilot should know what it said, before it was scraped off by the passing bag, he could read the limitations section of the flight manual, and there it will be! I once nearly killed myself for not knowing the information on a placard, which had not been installed on a Cessna 303 I was flying - but it was in the flight manual - literally in fact, in a zip bag, stapled to the revised limitations page! The revised checklist also stated the newly prohibited operation - I wish I had read it before I tried it!

I watched a Mooney pilot/owner loose the skin from his knuckles, when attempting an emergency gear extension - you gotta pull that gear motor breaker before you turn the hand crank, or a few turns in, the motor will suddenly drive it, and as it comes around - Ouch!

I like flight manuals and checklists - and the skin on my knuckles!

[27/09]

If you prop swing an aircraft with a dead battery there's no guarantee the battery will charge with either an alternator or a generator.

In this situation very often the battery solenoid will not operate and the battery will not be connected to the aircraft electrical system. The generator or alternator will most likely run all the electrical systems but there will be no charge going to the battery.

The same can apply even when starting with a battery cart if the battery is dead flat.

[Piper.Classique]

PC, apologies if your engine really does have SoS mags. Very unusual!

Generators? - oh yes, common on older engines!

Yes, it does. Yes, it is unusual. Please do feel free to come and look. There are others on this forum who have flown the aircraft in question, as obviously I, as the owner, know nothing about the aircraft. Don't bother looking in the flight manual though, my approved flight manual is a scruffy bundle of A4 sheets giving information on a different engine and prop, with no other information that cannot be found elsewhere.
But the CAA, who cannot be wrong, have approved mine, so who am I to disagree?

Step Turn, I agree that a proper flight manual is a useful thing to have. I don't think many go in to the kind of detailed information that Cockney Steve has shared with us.