Hand propping a J-3, PA11, PA18 is as Le Sving describes. I do have a chock on the starboard side but I rely on reaching the magnetos if I have to kill the engine. One safety technique is to turn the fuel cock to off after priming, the fuel ines will provide enough fuel to get in before the engine dies.
On a hot engine the throttle is open more than 1 cm, more like 5-6 cm. You can reach across and bring the throttle to idle when the engine catches.
Airborne_Again wrote:
That doesn’t make it a good idea.
I have never even thought about chocks before this thread, and I still don’t see under what circumstance they will help. The brakes are on, and this is checked even while propping because you hold the airframe (it is a separate check point if you like). Lets see:
You can also use your foot as a chock, but how vise is that if your foot gets stuck?
All in all, I don’t see how chocks will help. They are just one additional and completely unnecessary point.
By the way, found two videos. The first one shows the typical procedure, the correct procedure (this is a J3, but more than close enough). The second one is how it’s not normally done. You have to be two trained persons. I still don’t see the point though, but I guess it adds a bit of “dramatic old time effect”, which is emphasized by the “hee haw” in the end 
LeSving wrote:
They are just one additional and completely unnecessary point.
Totally disagree.
The biggest risk when hand propping is over priming and/or too much throttle, so the critical time is the 1st 3 seconds . Thus, I use chocks on start, then when the idle settles in I remove the chocks and board.
As already pointed out, just because you haven’t had an incident YET doesn’t mean there’s not a better & safer way.
LeSving wrote:
The brakes are on, and this is checked even while propping because you hold the airframe (it is a separate check point if you like).
If you have 100% reliable brakes, sure.
Michael wrote:
As already pointed out, just because you haven’t had an incident YET doesn’t mean there’s not a better & safer way.
OK, I agree – in the same way walking around in your home with a helmet makes you more safe. After all, most accidents happens in homes, and just because I haven’t cracked my head open on the sink YET, doesn’t mean there’s not a safer way. I mean com on, get real.
Airborne_Again wrote:
If you have 100% reliable brakes, sure.
That’s why you check them (grabbing the airframe and feel positively the brakes are on).
That first video was an accident. Who knows what he actually tried to do. Was it to start the engine, or what it to rotate the prop before starting as part of the check list? Either way, whatever he tried to do, it wen’t horribly wrong.
What is more scary is to hand prop on slippery surface, like ice/packed wet snow. Not only because the aircraft may, and probably will slide around, but also because your foot grip is equally gone. You have a fair chance of loosing the grip and fall into the prop. No chocks will help you either, but cause even more problems, simply because you have to move more on the slippery surface. Always having a firm grip on the airframe is crucial.
Surely you have no chance of holding onto a 100hp+ plane if the engine goes off at a high rpm for a second or two.
I know someone who lost his and it was nothing as big as a Cirrus. May have been a Rotax. Lots of damage and expensive peripheral damage narrowly avoided.
GA brakes are mostly dodgy too.
Peter wrote:
Surely you have no chance of holding onto a 100hp+ plane if the engine goes off at a high rpm for a second or two.
This is all theoretical mumbu jumbo completely out of context. Yes, there are freak accidents by handpropping, and inadvertently starting the engine by rotating the propeller with ignition left on. But, before flying an aircraft that actually needs hand propping, you better learn how to do it first, and do it correct, as appropriate to that particular aircraft. It’s the same as landing an aircraft without knowing how. If you never learned how to, you could come up with stuff like saying you should always land on grass, because grass is softer than tarmac (makes sense sort of, but is ultimately nonsense. Well, except in a taildragger, but it has nothing to do with the softness of the grass).
How exactly are chocks going to stop an aircraft. like a Cub, that is designed from the ground to handle strips with rougher surface than the chocks? They won’t. Your best and only option is to make sure the brakes are on. You want the wheels to not rotate. What will happen? A Cub will probably nose over when applying full throttle with brakes on tight and no one in the seats. It will certainly cause a lot of damage, but it will not run away.
Anyway, those L-18 we have in Norway are old Army property. They have flown perhaps somewhere between 50-100k hours all together, and never (to my knowledge) has there been an accident or incident where hand propping has caused the airplane to run away. They have been hand propped about 50-100k times also. Why is that? it’s because every pilot learns the correct way of hand propping. This is the same procedures as used in 100-1000 times more hand proppable Cubs in the US with equally good results.
But, I guess, the “experts” on the internet know better. Well, I chose to stick to reality.
What would be the exact procedure for hand propping an SR22, or say a TB20?
Note that you can’t have a hand on the throttle while hand propping.
Peter wrote:
What would be the exact procedure for hand propping an SR22, or say a TB20?
If the battery is completely dead then your first problem is going to be priming since both are FI.
