In my 182 if you jump start the plane using the special plug in the side
of the plane the master switch and everything after it are taken out of
the loop. It is as if you already turned the master on. You can see
the charge the alternator is putting out on the gauge. After
disconnecting the cable you can turn the master switch on. If you
turned the master on while still hooked up it wouldn't do anything. I
have a single master. If I had a split master I would still turn them
both on when starting the plane. This is a common topic on the cessna
pilots assoc forums. There is no good reason to start the plane with
the alternator off.

Nathan Young wrote:
On Sat, 23 Oct 2004 05:02:19 +0000 (UTC),
(Paul Tomblin) wrote:


I had to jump start my plane (using the Piper External Power port) (yes, I
stupidly ran down the juice when I thought a gas smell was coming from a
flooded engine when it wasn't). I turned on just the battery half of the
master while I did it, and the plane started ok.

There was an annoying whine in the intercomm, and it took me a good amount
of time (15-20 minutes flight time) to realize that the alternator guage
was pegged, and cycling the alterator half of the master switch off and on
again got the alterator guage down from being pegged, and got rid of the
whine. I suspect that I misread the sign language from the guy who was
helping with the jump start, and I turned on the alterator before he
unplugged the external power.

Does this damage the alternator in any way?