"dennis brown" wrote in message
nk.net...

Actually, almost yes.

It was fairly common to start planes from behind the prop. Some had no
brakes
so it was safer than trying to start from the front. If they had chocks,
connected by a rope, that would work. But it had the possibility of
getting
rope and chocks into the prop.

I have started a plane by standing across the right gear and bringing the
blade down. It was quite comfortable. You're holding onto something
(the struts) and you know the prop is not going to run over you. In my old
age, I don't prop planes.


I do prop planes, I own an Aeronca 7AC, and I do prop it from behind. But
I'm fairly confident Aeronca put the sole door on the right side because the
left side was occupied by throttle linkage, not to make inflight restarts
possible.