The Cessna 120-140 Association Forum

With it being the colder time of year I pulled the plane out of the hangar yesterday and found that battery just didn’t have it in it to swing the prop. With that experience behind me (and a trickle charger on the to-buy list), for those who either fly a 120 without an electrical system or otherwise hand-prop semi-regularly, what is your procedure? How does it differ for solo versus with an assistant? What safety precautions do you take?

non electric 120 on the farm, cement block in front of wheel, prime, turn prop 3 times, turn fuel off, open throttle 1/4", turn mag on, swing prop-should start on first try, turn fuel on and set throttle to low idle, remove cement block.
at a airport, i have chocks in the plane and i tie the tail down and use the same procedure and when running, untie the tail first and chocks last.

VIP620 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2020 4:02 pm non electric 120 on the farm, cement block in front of wheel, prime, turn prop 3 times, turn fuel off, open throttle 1/4", turn mag on, swing prop-should start on first try, turn fuel on and set throttle to low idle, remove cement block.
at a airport, i have chocks in the plane and i tie the tail down and use the same procedure and when running, untie the tail first and chocks last.

I presume you’re propping from the front and then walking around? Any experience propping from the back (passenger side, presumably)?

Cubs and Aeronca’s are best propped from behind? You can get to the throttle and mag switch easier. 120’s and 140’s from the front. Having the prop in the right position is paramount. Compression at the 10/4 position.

Unless you've got really long arms, you'd have to stand in front of the lift strut to do it and that strikes me as a very bad idea...

With a assistant and no ice on the ground pretty straight forward by yourself TIE it down and I like the comment of fuel off. As far as the procedure mine would need two prime pumps and SMALL amount of throttle. BE SAFE AND SMART I went to the hand prop seminar given by Ken and Lorraine Morris trust me theirs a lot at hand!

6643 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2020 8:11 pm Unless you've got really long arms, you'd have to stand in front of the lift strut to do it and that strikes me as a very bad idea...

When you prop a float plane, you really don’t have any other option than to stand behind it.
But then you don’t have to worry about wheel chocks or tieing the tail either.

But really we shouldn’t be propping a starter equipped airplane, not to sound too much like a Nanny, but it is a safety issue, better to jump one with another battery.

Some things have to be seen to be believed
https://youtu.be/Ecosb5mSDwo

The spinner bulkhead on that crop duster must be well cracked by now.

ALWAYS TIED DOWN OR CHOCKED GOOD!

MAGS OFF
mixture knob about a third of way out(plane likes it that way for some reason).
Throttle barely cracked
3 shots of primer
Pull Prop through backwards 3-5 times
MAGS ON
Usually starts 2nd or third blade.

When propping it seems every plane has its own individual quirks that one must know to make it start easily. Practice with someone competent in hand propping. Can’t emphasize caution enough.