tail wheel tie down for hand proping

[hangarb7]

Re: tail wheel tie down for hand propping

Had 2 cents in my pocket so I thought I would weigh in on this subject (I finally know something about something from experience ;-)

Most of the time, I fly by myself and I never thought about the need for an Armstrong starter until after I bought N44057. So here is my technique for the detail-oriented, anal person that I am.

Tie tail with rope; set parking brake; block front wheels with two wood chocks roped together with a rope loop up to the foot step on side of cabin. Mag off, pull thru 5 blades.

Stand on right side of airplane, straddling the wheel. Reach in to crack throttle, call clear and turn mags hot with left hand; with two fingers on end of blade, pull blade sharply (only time it didn't start on first blade as when I forgot to turn on mags!). When engine starts, glance at oil pressure gauge and adjust throttle.

Back away from side of airplane. When engine warmed and throttle adjusted to keep pressure off tires in slow idle, untie tail. Carefully climb in making sure not to bump the T-handle on the brakes. Buckle up, hold brakes, reach down and pull chocks out and toss to side, and away you go.

I like the idea of the mag switches on the side of the airplane boot. Is this OK without a paperwork change?

Finally, I made the Bingelis release device talked about previously, but it didn't work very well. On more than a couple occasions, I would pull the pin but the rope would hang up on the end of the jaw. Could never figure out why but seemed that the angle of the jaw was a little too shallow. Even after radiusing and polishing the device several times I could never get it to work reliably. I just went back to tieing down the tail.

Jack Dernorsek
'46 BC12D
Rostraver Airport, Belle Vernon, PA ( FWQ )

[mhorowit]

Re: tail wheel tie down for hand proping

I promised some one I would photo the parking brake set up & never did; my ship does not have one.

Something like this?

[paulp]

Re: tail wheel tie down for hand proping

Howdy Jack,

Excellent advise & well thought out. I really like the idea of the mag switches on the outside. But, like you, I would be a little concerned about the paperwork. Mabey Forrest has some input on this idea. Sounds like a candidate for an STC.

Oh, by the way-Mike, I am allowing a full hour. This, however, includes 8 min for the organizing and registration of the participants. 14 minutes to insure that all permits have been checked and verified by the left wing libertairians and that all fees have been collected and posted by the city officials. Another 11 minutes to allow the ACLU attournies to ascertain that no ones civil rights have been infringed upon. Another 17 minutes for a blue ribbon panel to review the process to insure that all minority and religous groups are equally represented and are at a satisfactory comfort level with the process and that all aspects of the proceedings are politically correct. And lastly, 5 minutes for an initial security check of the main participant. I realize that this only leaves 5 minutes for the actual proceedings; however, as far as I am concerned they will have to form a double line and hustle and if they don't like that-they can kiss my arse in the town square and I'll give them an hour and 30 minutes to draw a crowd!!!

[VictorBravo]

Re: tail wheel tie down for hand proping

Dear, dear friends...

If you hand prop a Taylorcraft or similar airplane from behind, there are two life threatening problems.

First, you are trapped between the tire, the prop, the strut and the fuselage. Kind of limits your escape routes, folks, doesn't it? That is not a time when you want to have your escape routes limited...duh!

Second, if you prop it from behind, and the aircraft lunges forward, you have an entire airplane trying to bump you forward towards the propeller. You have several ways to get killed....

Trip over the tire, which is trying to roll over your foot and/or push you towards the prop.
Have the wing leading edge knock your head toward the propeller.
Have the wing strut hit you in the waist and push you forward.

Your ONLY way out is to move outboard towards the wingtip, but again the leading edge is moving toward your head and the strut is coming after you too. EVERYTHING is trying to move your body mass forward towards the prop. Even your HEAD is forced to swing forward towards the prop if you are standing behind it!

The prop may not be moving away from you fast enough; if the chains or ropes finally get tight, the plane stops moving forward but you don't. Would you like some fries with that mincemeat?

I prop my airplanes as follows:

Put chocks in front of the tires. Tie down the wings or the tail or both if possible. Don't matter whether there is someone in the airplane, I don't trust them not to kill me anyway. Tiedown chains, ropes, and chocks I trust.

Start it by putting your body CLOSE to the propeller when the prop is not moving, and moving swiftly AWAY from the prop as the prop gains speed and starts. I swing my leg under the propeller and have my face almost close enough to kiss the prop at the start of the swing.

As I swing the blade downward, my leg is swinging away from the prop (forward of the airplane) and carrying my body away from the prop. This induces me to take two giant steps back away from the propeller by the time it becomes dangerous (cylinder fires).

No matter what the throttle setting, the ropes and chocks will stop the airplane long before it moves four or five feet to strike me. There is NO part of the airplane that can hit me or push me toward a spinning propeller!!!

I'd like to take the credit for this painfully obvious bit of common sense, but the Barnstormers did it this way for decades, and they did it for a reason.

The propeller is safe and friendly when it is not moving, and a dangerous man-eater when it is moving. So it follows that you should be close to it when it is not ready to kill you, and far away from it when it is ready to kill you. Hell, even a nosewheel pilot can understand this...

[tcartdriver]

Re: tail wheel tie down for hand proping

My '46 came with the parking brake assembly when I bought her 25y ago. It's a little T handle you pull out and give a half twist to the R to lock. It in turn pulls on a 1/16" cable that in turn is attached to a Y harness of the same cable which goes through a little hole on the back of each brake pedal. It's best to depress the pedals with your heels first, then pull the parking brake handle snug and lock. But I agree, it's just not strong enough to make those old mechanical Shinn brakes hold anymore than 800 or so RPM. I never use it so it's really just for looks and authenticity.

For hand propping I've been using custom made wheel chocks for the past 25 years which have worked great and are a heck of a lot more convenient than a tail tiedown. And safer too in my opinion. The chocks are made of lightweight cedar block and are cut with a curve to perfectly fit the curve of the tire. They are ~5" tall, 4.5" wide with a 7"long base. Rubberized cork sheet is glued to the bottom which gives plenty of friction on pavement. The 2 chocks are connected by a lanyard giving enough slack so they can be be placed in front of each tire and have a 4' extension to the lanyard on the L side. Before starting, the extension is laid out so it is easy to reach while standing at the L strut. After the engine starts I walk over and lean back with a little pressure on the strut, then pull the 2 chocks using the lanyard. She often nuzzles ahead like an old horse looking for a handout (even at 500rpm) but I can then easily duck behind the struts and hold her from rolling with my L hand while I clamber into the cockpit. Over the years I've occasionally made mistakes and started her with the throttle shoved in a ways. Nevertheless she never even hinted at jumping the chocks.

If anyone wants me to I'd be happy to take some close up photos and post them with my next note.

Regards, Robert L Morgan, Lopez Island

[paulp]

Re: tail wheel tie down for hand proping

Howdy Victor Bravo,

I'm sorry, I have to disagree with your statement that the prop is not dangerous and is safe when not moving. My lack of attention led me to find my new yellow tagged McCauley(not moving) with the back of my head while chasing a clamp. This in turn caused me to throw my screw driver into the squirrel cage fan. Apperantly the squirrel cage took exception to a forign object being placed between the vanes and immediately launched the screw driver out of the fan and like a boomerang the screw dirver returned to it's initial launch point with about a 10 degree elevation and bounced off of my newly painted cowling, leaving only a small dent, and hit me ON THE BACK OF MY HAND THAT WAS STAUNCHING THE BLOOD FLOW FROM THE BACK OF MY HEAD! At that point, my sense of self preservation took over and told me to get away from the airplane and seek medical attention. However, my sense of self preservation totaly overlooked the completly full oil drain pan between the gear. I managed to find the edge of the rubberized pan with my right hand and helped about a quart of oil to escape. I attempted to mop up that mess with the back of my shirt when my hand slipped on the wet oil. And, as a consequence of that, I hit my elbow on the hangar floor. At this point, I am
bloody, bruised, oily and mad as hell. As a consequence, I did not notice the oil on my shoe. When I finally stood up and started for the door, my foot slipped.And when I tried to catch myself, I pulled a muscle in my lower back!!! The end result was that I got oil on the seat of my truck, 4 stiches in the back of my head, a bruise on the back of my hand and a pulled muscle in my back. I might also mention that the emergency staff(fine folks all) got one hell of a laugh at my expense. SO, PLEASE, VB don't tell folks that props that ain't moving aren't dangerous!!!

[VictorBravo]

Re: tail wheel tie down for hand proping

WOW! I think that AIR would have been dangerous at that monent Glad to hear you are no longer in a hospital traction bed!

[flyguy]

Re: tail wheel tie down for hand proping

Hey Paul,
That is a great story. Don't have anything in my collection that comes anyways near it. I now wear a welder's cap with extra padding in it when I am working around airplanes. Almost all my scars on my head are gone now.

All: At one time I used the slightly lifted forward leg and then swing back technique as adopted from my ancient instructor years ago. I no longer use that technique. I suspect most anyone can figure out why if you think about the dynamics of it carefully and long enough. I never had it happen, but I've had it hint at happening; that was enough for me.
Darryl

[paulp]

Re: tail wheel tie down for hand proping

Howdy Darryl,

I solved my hand propping problem by converting to a mod 19 w/an elect start. Now if I could just solve my clumsy problem.hummmmm!

[Pearson]

The World's First Airline

I just went to the Vintage Aircraft link that Ron Greene posted above. After viewing the drawings of the rope with the slip pin I went back to the Vintage sight and the link at the bottom of the page caught my eye. It is about the very first airline from Tampa to St Pete. Wow! Check it out!