Pilot Dies From Hand-Propping Propeller Accident

I can not count the times that I have hand propped an airplane. That was the only way that you could start them. There were/are techniques and procedures to which you adhered and you simply did them. I don't know how he got his head in the path of the blade other than falling forward which you could probably do if you were attempting a hand prop start from the back side which is dangerous. I have hand propped everything you can think of including WW1 rotary's and an AT-6 (done on a $15.00 bet). Old procedures have slipped past us with all the fancy modern stuff and I recognize that. Very sorry for the guy's family.

 

First off, sincere condolences to his family....

So help me understand WHY he would have done this? I must assume the plane
has electric start.... so if it won't start with the key, why would you take this risk
and not just park it and charge the batteries. Not to mention, back in my "poor days"
when I couldn't afford new batteries until the very end of them, I learned the hard
way that a totally flat battery will just stall the car out anyway, so push starting
was not a good option... is that effectively what he might have been doing?

Just seems to me in the world of planes, ANYTHING significant not working on the
ground - stalling coming out of the hangar, or a totally flat battery - just seems
utter common sense - STAY ON THE GROUND AND FIX IT.

Help me understand....

Jedi

 

I have no idea why someone would do this. The cons really outweigh the pros.

 

Many seaplane pilots have to crank the prop from the back side while standing on the float but you have to maintain balance and a backward movement when you're flipping the prop. I was told early on when I was a snot nosed kid that you don't even TOUCH a hot prop even when the switches are off.

 

I learned how on an Aeronca Champ when I was 12 years old. (These do not have electric starters)
I am sure it's a bit trickier on the larger stuff.

 

Propping a plane is dangerous, but Bob and Spasso are living proof that it can be done and you can live to tell about it. I learned it from an "old timer" and there are things you can do to make it a lot safer. With the technology around today there aren't many times that you need to do it anymore. While an airplane can be propped and started, modern electronics and charging systems need a proper battery to work, so even if you start it, you can easily find yourself without any electricty on the airplane when you get halfway to where you are going... (don't ask me how I know)...

 

Just a speculative question - but did he have the plane tied down when he hand propped it?

 

I have been thinking about that, too. If the plane was tied down , was it tied at the tail? All three points? I have seen several disastrous incidents where an airplane was tied down with one wing rope and with an advanced throttle. On one pull it started and somehow missed the idiot in front of it and proceeded to turn itself into a super big control line model, flying around in a circle. Sadly, we had to run a truck into it to stop it before it broke loose and killed somebody. The process of hand propping an airplane when you are alone is simply all bad but if it has to be done, the tiedown should be at the tail. If you can get the airplane is started , it should be brought to a slow warm idle and then remove the rope. I had to do it a couple of times when we were moving a lot of airplanes out of the path of a hurricane but it is a dumb thing to do if you can get assistance.
One of the mistakes that some folks make is not getting close enough to the prop before swinging it. We used to call for switches off and wait for a positive reply. If the airplane had been primed , swing the prop thru several blades and position it on a compression stroke of a cylinder that allows you to comfortably get a good pull on the blade...not too high and NEVER TOO LOW but something near a 245 deg angle.
Call for brakes, throttle cracked, and LEFT MAG. That one is retarded several degrees past TDC and if it fires quickly the piston is on the downward part of the power stroke and less likely to pop backwards.Wait for the pilot to repeat your instructions. Then address the prop with both hands, fingers barely around the trailing edge of the blade. Put your right leg forward under the nose and aggressively swing the blade at the same time that you swing your right leg back. Follow through with your arms in a direction that swings your body away from the prop disc. NEVER turn your back to a spinning propeller.
I guess that I am reliving the many times that I have cranked Stearmans and other big ol' clunks. The worst prop blade to hand crank is a steel Macauly on a Stearman...very sharp trailing edge.

 

I read a truly heart-stopping story about hand propping by yourself in the old flying magazine section called "I learned about flying from that" -

The guy kind of slipped on some ice and fell forward onto the spinner with the engine running. He was not hit but all he could do was shuffle backward a little at a time and hope that he had it tied down at the tail. In his panic, he really couldn't remember.

Finally, he got back far enough that the plane ran out of rope (it was tied at the tail after all) and he got away from it.

Time to shut it down and call it a day after that one, I would think.

EDIT to add: The reason I wondered was the original description - it sounded like he just pushed it out of his hanger and tried to prop it right outside the door. Where I would doubt if there were tiedowns handy.

 

I'm still not understanding the WHY of it. If the plane has electric start, and for some
reason that's not starting the plane, and no hurricane is forcing planes to be started
without keys, WHY WOULD ANYONE DO THIS? Why wouldn't he have fixed whatever
wasn't working FIRST, so the plane would start from a key?

I'm sorry if it's a dumb question, but I just don't get it.

Jedi

 

I got to thinking about the nastiest airplanes to crank up and first in my mind is the Ryan P-22, a Kinner with and impulse mag and a light weight wooden prop. You had to be really aggressive when pulling the prop because when that impulse mag kicked in it real took off. Kick-back was another dangerous part of the PT-22's personality.

 

I hate to admit it, but I have been stuck at an unmanned field with a bad alternator and had to charge the battery enough to crank the plane, then turn everything electrical off and just fly on the mags to get back to civilization.

At night. A nice, clear, moonlit night with plenty of well-lit towns and roads to follow.

But still ---

 

This conversation triggered another incident that I had forgotten over the years. I was propping a Stearman that had an instructor and student aboard. After priming and pulling it through and getting a blade in a good position I yelled contact and brakes. As I stepped up to the prop and was in the process of reaching out for the blade, the engine kicked off and started. The contortions and ballet that I went through trying to miss the prop must have been comical but somehow there was no contact with the prop. The airplane had a booster magneto that the instructor started energizing before I had swung the propeller--not afterward as he was supposed to do. The charge in the cylinder and the position of the piston was just right to crank up the engine. After two years in the service without getting hurt too bad, it would have ironic to get it when i was a civilian cranking up an airplane with an idiot aboard.

 

Well, there are several possibilities. First of all, the article doesn't say what kind of airplane it is. Perhaps it didn't have an electrical system, in which case hand propping is the only way to start it?

Perhaps the battery was dead?

Perhaps the starter was broken or intermittent?

I've hand-propped quite a few airplanes in my younger days. It's not a big deal, depending on the airplane.

One thing I have never done, however, is hand propped without someone manning the brakes and throttle.

 

Yup - I was taught that you never did this without a qualified person in the pilots seat, and also you really should have the plane tied down. At the very least - one or the other.

You know - these accidents crop up with a really discouraging regularity. It would seem that this should be one of the most avoidable of flying mishaps...and yet it still happens.

 

I was 15 when I was taking my first lessons. Lived in a small town in NE, and we had a muni ap. No radio, no tower, just the young boy pumping the fuel. In 53 there were many planes that had no electrical system, cubs, airknockers and so on. I was the young boy pumping the fuel and propping the planes as part of my job, as I was working for my lessons. We had one guy that had a Mooney Mite. Very small plane. He would never let me prop his plane. He would stand on the port side in front of the wing with his hand in the cockpit on the throttle and his left hand on the prop. It is a low wing with a canopy, his arm was in the cockpit to keep him from falling into the prop.

The hardest one I ever did, was a Navion with a 440 engine, man I had to pull that thing maybe 4 times before it fired.

My home base is Gillespee, I will find out exactly what happened, and report, you know how busybody small airports are.

Klatu

 

Condolences to the family........nasty business when not done correctly. I rode the front seat of an older biplane back in the early '70's (a Great Lakes IIRC) with radial engine and my buddy did the proping chores. He knew what he was doing, instructions to me were very specific and he did it very well. Flew out of Lake Elmo, Minn. and did touch and goes at various strips around the area.....Open cockpit experience....very memorable.

 

I'll bet these accidents were pretty common during WWI when propping was the only way to start many planes.

 

Those who operated airplanes without electric starters were thoroughly trained and adhered to their instructions. Hand propping was an integral part of flying and part of your training. There were no impulse mags or light wooden props. Props were slower and heavier and they were respected for the danger that they possessed.I don't remember anyone getting hurt or killed when I was a kid and hand propping many many airplanes.

 

Looking back at the steps used to check if your calls were accomplished. Pushing back on the airplane at the prop hub to ascertain that the brakes were applied after calling " Brakes and Contact." Sometimes when you weren't sure if the switches were off you deftly moved a blade to see if it moved on its own...even a little bit from a hot charge in one of the cylinders. You never wrapped your fingers around the trailing edge of the blade in case of a kick-back that could break a finger (s) or pull you into the prop when it kicked off. I have a friend who broke four of the five fingers on one hand when the prop kicked back when he was reaching out to give it another crank.