Dimme wrote:
Watch the video carefully. He was not alone. There is a passenger in the right seat that jumps out of the airplane when it starts rolling.
Ok, so he does it with a passenger in the RH seat and not another pilot in the LH seat. That’s even worse!!
AnthonyQ wrote:
However you slice it a Seminole
That one looks more like: “which part you want me to cut with my 3 blades prop?”
“tail please”, “I am not sure? tell me when to stop”,“…I said stop”, “…sorry too late” 
I was almost going to defend the poor Cirrus-hand-propper, after all he has been through, and I almost wrote about how and why I hand-propped my Dakota (same displacement as the Cirrus) last summer, but I’ll just link to here
(scroll to the part that begins “Everything I Know About Flying I Learned From Social Media”)
Nothing wrong with hand-propping if you know what you are doing. But without chocks? And with a pax in the RHS? Come on!
Good link @huv … however Paul is not quite right about a DC3 not being hand-startable. I have just seen WW2 footage of 3-4 guys all working together, starting some WW2 bomber, one engine at a time, and with one guy per prop blade, and that one was a lot bigger than a DC3
I’m sure someone sent Paul B this sketch minutes after he wrote about the DC-3 being non-hand-proppable …
huv wrote:
DC-3 being non-hand-proppable
Somehow true, the ones that fly these days: you need a heater and a starter, now sure how you hand-heat first?
(they have solid oil inside their engines in freezing temperatures)
According to an old time commercial pilot I knew, in a crunch a rubber inner tube around the blade worked pretty well for rope starting on big radials. He flew DC-3s and DC-4s, ended up as US Air senior pilot and spent his money buying, owning and restoring antiques… about 100 of them in his lifetime. I know he did it
When I bought my plane in 2002 or so, and then learned to fly in it, the first lesson was hand propping. It couldn’t be started any other way. Despite that, I wouldn’t personally hand prop a flat six, the blade positions and compression/power strokes don’t cooperate well.
Geez, he shoulda’ just pop the chute ! 
Airborne_Again wrote:
But without chocks? And with a pax in the RHS? Come on!
There is no other way to start the L-18 C Super Cub, an I do it all the time with pax on board and no chocks. In 1953 a Cub took off by itself, no one on board. It happened after an accidental start by a solo student. It flew a circle around the city for 4-5 minutes before it crashed into some buildings You can read about it here (in Norwegian).
I have tried to hand start the Pawnee (O-540) a couple of times due to flat battery, but never managed to get it going.
