Dumb Question

[RockyMnt1]

Hand Propping

I did see a picture (I think that it was in Africa) of a C-310 that was hand propped by wraping a rope around the prop hub and blades. A bunch of people held onto the rope and ran when given the signal. Sort of like a giant recoil starter (only no recoil). I cetainly would not encourage this type of maneuver, but when it is called for it can be done.

 

[Singlecoil]

I had a guy hand prop a 207 once with a Continental IO-520-F engine. You won't find me handpropping any airplane, especially one with a three bladed prop, but he wanted to get to town, so there we were.
Worked just fine, but I'm not sure I would do it again.

 

[avbug]

I handpropped 206's and 207's quite a few times while working out in the back country. Sometimes it seemed it was a futile exercise, and others, it wasn't so bad. Several times I couldn't get one started, but generally it worked fine. Same for other light airplanes, from Cessna 182's and 310's to aircraft without starters or electrical systems, such as J-3's, etc.

Rope starting can be done, but it can also be hazardous to the airplane, and potentially to those doing the starting. This trick was used on occasion in large radial recips, using a truck or winch for the starter, with the rope wrapped alternately in and out of the prop blades around the hub. One had to be very careful about bending a rod due to hydraulic lock, and this was done by pulling the engine through by hand...typically quite a few revoloutions.

What radial engines were referred to previously that had only one mag and one distributor?

 

[V1 cuts R fun]

master switch gets the battery hot to utilize the starter, usually those **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** bendix starters that jump out and never catch. Anyways, after the engine is started and your mags work correctly then the engine continues to run. Thats what the magnetos are for.

 

[katanabob]

Avbug: The one mag/one distributor engines I have worked on were Jacobs engines. (The so-called 'shaky Jake') (Found most often in Cessna 195's and Beech Staggerwings)
I am sure there were another couple, but I can't remember what at the moment.