Another prop strike death

[brianw999]

Years ago, when Noah was banging nails into lumps of wood and watching the weather forecast !!!

.... I was on a PPL course. We were trying to start a Cherokee 140 with a flat battery. My instructor was halfway round the front when the CFI came out of the clubhouse like a rocket. "Anyone touches that prop, they're out of here."
A long walk later and we'd fetched "Sid the Tiger Moth pilot" from the airfield cafe to swing the prop for us. It cost us a breakfast fry up for him but we got a safe hand start from someone who had been properly trained to do it.
The CFI set up a lecture for the afternoon....guess the subject ?

Move forward to the present day. Now older and much wiser I regularly supply ground marshalling at Popham airfield in the UK. I know how to swing a prop, I've seen it done many times, ..... but I've never been properly trained to do it and would never consider trying it without proper training.

[guamainiac]

Kind of like starting a Model T or 1965 Peugeot (not kidding), critical is keeping the thumbs doing nothing. Thumbs are at the palms.

[AVION1]

My flight instructor handpropped our airplane once, I was at the cockpit with the brakes and I think he advised to have the magnetos set in left not in both or right. Not sure why he advised to have the magnetos at the ignition switch set this way.

[3WE]

My flight instructor handpropped our airplane once, I was at the cockpit with the brakes and I think he advised to have the magnetos set in left not in both or right. Not sure why he advised to have the magnetos at the ignition switch set this way.

Safety.

The theory is "be ready to "instantly" kill the ignition if something bad happens with the starter or brake failure."

Ignition on both would require you to turn the key to the left three clicks before getting to off.

On left magneto, you are only one click away from off.