Teen Gals Fly a Cub

M

msamac

Level Cruise
Well, they didn't exactly fly it, but they tried. There is a hanger near where I park my airplane, and I was out trying to put my alternator in. Mike R. is so right, the hardware and instructions with the new Plane Power alternator are excellent. All the hardware works perfectly. That doesn’t mean I didn’t have to make about 5 hours worth of parts runs to the Airport Shoppe today!

These two teens where trying to hand prop start a Piper Cub and they almost got it, but it wouldn't go. So, they didn't really go flying, but they tried. I almost offered to hand prop it for them, but I have not been trained, and quite honestly, I was not sure I wanted to learned from a couple of teenage girls. I know that smacks of something, but hey, I like my hands and head! They had several others offer help, but one of them said that the Cub was vapor locked and in about two hours, it would be fine. I was at the airport all day I didn't see them come back.

I was struck that a couple of teen gals would come out to the airport just for a nice ride in a Cub on a beautiful Saturday in the Bay. It gave me a hope for the future of GA. Perhaps GA will live on a 100 more years, let's hope and pray!

Mike
 
A tail dragon?

Can you retard the timing on a Cub?

The concept of "vapor lock" has an intellectual appeal but I have never been so convinced that it was the real reason why an engine would not start.

It's a good story though, you have to admire a purist and anyone willing to do what you have to do to be able to fly an airplane. It is a foregone conclusion that the Cub is a tail dragger which conclusion also implies a level of competence on the young'ins you describe. May they, and many more like them, preserve Georgia in perpetuity!
 
I had a starter prob one time & the line kid was nice enough to help in trying to hand prop my 63 that was at operating temps. Had just landed, shut down for fuel & starter acted up on the restart.

Kid stood behind the prop, copilot side, left arm over the cowling & gave it many tries with his right hand (arm) with no luck.

Said it was safer but i'd never seen that technique before or since & didn't seem safe ..at all, to me. He didn't seem to be able to get much muscle into the pull either.

I got out with ..ahem, a qualified person at the controls, one swing from the front & started right up.

Hand propped my 63 many a time & didn't think much of it.. Only realized much later that there were many things about hand propping I did not know & how dangerous it was.

A very experienced Luscombe pilot lost an arm this year when hand propping an experimental that he had built & flown for many years.

Didn't hear the details about how it happened exactly.

Pix of a Luscombe.

http://www.popularaviation.com/luscombe/PhotoGallery.asp?Page=1
 
Hey Simik, thats how I start my Champ...From behind. It IS much safer due to many reasons. It is even ENCOURAGED if you are hand propping by yourself. The primary reason is it the th :o rottle is not set correctly-the plane can come forward toward the person hand propping!!! If an airplane is set up correctly, it should start by the time the prop goes through half a prop...Of course we are talking low compression engines here!!!! Mine sports a c-75 swinging a wooden prop!!! :lol:
 
I don't know why, but I need to learn to hand-prop an airplane. I guess it's the same reason mountain climbers climb mountains... because they can.

A guy on another pilot board (ipilot) sent three videos, one of what to never do, and two with correct procedure.

Mike
 
citationbravo said:
The primary reason is it the th :o rottle is not set correctly-the plane can come forward toward the person hand propping!!! If an airplane is set up correctly, it should start by the time the prop goes through half a prop..
Click to expand...

It was going to be the last time i hand propped as I was off to the mech to deal with the starter, that mostly made clicking noises..

I was pi@#ed. Pulled, pulled & pulled some more. Weather was nippy & trying a cold start buuuut maan, nothing. Forget all the things I tried to get it going, (prime etc..) but worked up a real good sweat.

Never forget though, when I gave up & was done, got in the cockpit ..& the throttle was set wide open. :shock: :shock:
 
I get to play with a 1943 Tiger Moth with a Gypsy Major engine. we always start from behind, with one hand on the fuz strut. This engine is very low compression so it's more like starting a model aeroplane than anything else. It's more a matter of flopping the prop over !
 
The one time I spent any real effort trying to hand prop my Sierra it was unsuccessful. A hot high compression fuel injected engine probably isn't the best starting point.
But it was probably a good think it didn't start. There were lots of loose starter bendix parts that easily could have been swept up into the ring gear if it had started. Could have caused lots of problems crossing water on the way home.
 
My Cherokee 180C had one mag that was impulse coupled, the other was not. To hand prop it, you had to be on the impulse coupled switch setting or you would never get it started.

I have no idea if other engine/mag setups are like that.

When I have observed folks with Luscombes and similar hand prop era planes, they stood on the right side of the engine compartment, behind the prop and pulled the prop thru with one hand. It was not hard to start those planes, they pulled it through a couple of times with the mag(s) off and engaged the mag to start it, gave the prop a strong pull at just before TDC and usually on the second pull the engine coughed to life.

Sure glad I don't have to do that!

Bob
 
AA3NK said:
My Cherokee 180C had one mag that was impulse coupled, the other was not. To hand prop it, you had to be on the impulse coupled switch setting or you would never get it started.

I have no idea if other engine/mag setups are like that.
Click to expand...
Mine (63) was a 'shower of sparks setup'. Think most (if not all) mice after 63 are impulse coupled.

Heard it's possible to hand prop an IO360..

Thing I like about from the front is you can use 2 hands & put your whole body into the swing, and then back away from the prop in one motion.

Sounds like the behind method is more for lower power engines.
 
simik said:
AA3NK said:
My Cherokee 180C had one mag that was impulse coupled, the other was not. To hand prop it, you had to be on the impulse coupled switch setting or you would never get it started.

I have no idea if other engine/mag setups are like that.
Click to expand...
Mine (63) was a 'shower of sparks setup'. Think most (if not all) mice after 63 are impulse coupled.

Heard it's possible to hand prop an IO360..
Click to expand...

That's what it's called! "Shower of Sparks!" It was a Bendix rig and mine was mouth breathing 360.

Are the fuel injectors mechanical on the IO360? I guess when I think about hand propping it is because of a low battery, not the absence of an electric starter.

Hmmm... intuition is kicking in--if it is an airplane engine, it will be very simple, as close to being like a lawn mower engine as you can get :lol: The injectors are almost certainly mechanical--what was I thinking :roll:

Of course, the 360 engines are not low compression engines to start with.

Bob
 
Just remembered.. not sure if all but A23s have shower of sparks setups.

Fwiw.. some planes have become airborne after hand propping with the throttle wide open ..with no one at the controls.
 
Hand propping is becoming a lost art, thankfully.

In the old school they taught propping from the front right hand descending blade on compression, hands flat on the blade face and no finger tips curling over the blade edge, your weight on your left leg well clear of the prop plane, bring your right knee up and kick back stepping away from the the prop in a smooth swinging motion, all of your weight and momentum moving away from the prop plane.

No finger tips curling over the prop blade, I am not sure how you would do this from behind the prop? Not that the descriptions above do not sound good in theory. I believe that hand propping is very dangerous and history proves this to be true.

I have hand propped two bladed Beech 18s and P&W R985 Stearmans hundreds of times, and have truly enjoyed doing it, earned money, even won bets doing it. People that have seen me doing this think, I am nuts. I think, people that hand prop small Lycomings are nuts. I personally, do not recommend or even like the idea of hand propping our Lycomings.

A friend, hand propped his beautiful Continental powered, Taylorcraft L-2M baby warbird at the Decatur, Texas, LUD, airport, where it ran away from him at full throttle, across the runway and off the mesa, destroying itself. I do think these small Continental engines are hand prop friendly, obviously most did not even have a starter option.

Don't do it. If you have a start problem on your Lycoming, fix it. Please be careful out there.

Sciscoe
 
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