Hi,I came to wonder why the J41 is not allowed to be pushed back with engines running. It is allowed to reverse under it's own power doing a powerback (Eastern does that from time to time) but is not allowed to be pushed when the engines are already running. Why is that the case?Best regards, Oliver

Safety, in a word.

So the concern is that ground crew might get hit by the props during push?Regards, Oliver

Oliver,It's a safety issue, plain and simple. It's dangerous to be handling pushback gear around spinning props.Powerbacks are restricted by company policy -- at ACA, the airline Rob flew for, powerbacks were against the rules. At Eastern, it's pretty clear that they're allowed, but notice that they're very careful about how they do it, with ground observers monitoring the movement of the aircraft.

So the concern is that ground crew might get hit by the props during push?

Yeah. Getting hit by spinning props can hurt.

Oliver,It's a safety issue, plain and simple. It's dangerous to be handling pushback gear around spinning props.Powerbacks are restricted by company policy -- at ACA, the airline Rob flew for, powerbacks were against the rules. At Eastern, it's pretty clear that they're allowed, but notice that they're very careful about how they do it, with ground observers monitoring the movement of the aircraft.

Powerbacks may be out, but note that Rob said clearly that a touch of reverse is necessary to keep the plane from moving forward in the first place. In real life, this may not be such an issue. Many "commuter" terminals are really just ramp parking with either a customer walk or bus to the terminal. There are exceptions, of course, but if you look at say San Diego or National or Dulles or a host of other large airports, the planes aren't pushed a lot; they fire up, make a tight turn and off they go. Think about where you park in FS, and it shouldn't be an issue. I don't know about Eastern or other non-U.S. operations.

Doug is right, a google earth view of airports reveals that this is standard practice everywhere I've looked. The pushbacks take equipment and labor that is a cost not necessary.

Thank you for the help/explanation. I was just wondering because I came across this video ...

Regards, Oliver

When I was on USS JOHN F KENNEDY in the early 80's, we had a guy back into a spinning prop on an E-2C. Fortunately for him, it only took the back of his cranial helmet off and knocked him on the deck. He landed under the prop arc and they had to shut the engine down to get him clear of the airplane.That was one lucky dude.

Thank you for the help/explanation. I was just wondering because I came across this video ...

Regards, Oliver

That looks like southampton in the UK, where powerbacks were/are allowed. However if you go to somewhere like Birmingham in the UK, where eastern also operate, they are always pushed back off stand, with the engines running as powerbacks are deemed unsafe, the stands they park on are not self manouvering, so they must be pushed back. So its obvious that whats viewed as "Safe" Varies from both what the airport and the airline deem safe. On one note to this, all pushbacks of prop aircraft as to be done straight out, with no curve onto the taxiway centerline, this helps ensure that there is less chance of getting closer to one of the props!RegardsJames