View Single Post
  #4  
Old May 17th 07, 05:39 AM posted to rec.aviation.piloting,rec.aviation.student
Don Tuite
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 319
Default Proping Question

On Thu, 17 May 2007 04:05:57 GMT, Jose
wrote:

Kicking though is still too close, even if you are swinging your body away
from the tip?


What exactly is "kicking"?


You're facing the prop from the front ot the plane. The blade is at
10 o'clock, at the start of a compression stroke,. You've previously
primed the engine and pulled the prop through several compressions
with the switch cold and the mixture rich.

Now you holler "Hot!, Brakes!" (assuming somebody's in the cockpit --
otherwise you switch the mags to hot and check the chocks and tiedown.

Reach up, pads of your fingers just over the top of the blade. Left
leg on ground, right leg swings forward and smartly back at the same
time that you snap the blade down. The leg swing propels your body
backward, away from the propeller arc.

That was the drill on the Taylorcraft. Cub pilots can swing the prop
from behind because of the way the doors work. I guess you'd have to
prop a T-craft on floats from behind, too, but it wouldn't be pretty
to look at.

It took the lady who sold me the plane about ten minutes to teach it
to me. It feels kinda natural. If it's a big exertion, you're doing
it wrong.

Don