This might be an old video, but youtube's algorithm threw it at me .

No gore, just plenty of cringe and sharp intake of breath..

This is why we can't have nice things.. Luckily the guy trying to stop the plane only received injuries rather than death, and the Cirrus damaged a hangar not another aircraft (or the Porsche!).

Scary when he runs in front of the prop.. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KpOg9Ci284

 

I was going to post it in the Aviation video section, but YT won't let me embed the video, hence the link..

No more flights in weeks for that one...

Cheers, Ed

Yup, saw that video a long time ago, but it still never ceases to amaze me how stupid the guys were.

The list of things they do wrong is a long one: Nobody in the cockpit on the brakes and putting the mags on after the propper is clear, so presumably no call to the tower that they were cranking since nobody was in the seat, clearly no communication between the two people involved since the other guys falls off the wing, no chocks in place, no tie downs, no parking brake applied, pulling it through compression strokes with the magnetos on, swinging the prop with the magnetos switched on, throttle clearly set wide open. And of course, doing it all on camera so it gets youtubed for your stupidity to live on for all to see, and you cannot blag the insurance company about what happened either.

Probably just as well they couldn't go fly the thing; who wants idiots like that in the circuit? Personally I don't like hand propping stuff, even RC models, I've done it, but it scares the cr@p out of me.

 

Edited July 3, 20205 yr by Chock

The video was from one of the surveillance cameras. What "two people?" I only saw one person in the video clip, which would explain why the 'propper' had to run around the front in an attempt to get into the cockpit and set the brakes...

...which he had obviously forgotten to do before hand! Where all of the blood in the cockpit came from is a mystery begging for a clue.

The most important question in my mind is why was the fellow hand propping to begin with? I sure as heck wouldn't want to go flying with dead batteries!

 

Everything they could do wrong, they did!
 

2 hours ago, n4gix said:

What "two people?" I only saw one person in the video clip

You can see the second person fall off the aircraft at 0:08 (starboard side) and start to stand and look in horror at 0:12 - 0:13 near the hangar.

2 hours ago, n4gix said:

I sure as heck wouldn't want to go flying with dead batteries!

You can recharge the batteries from the alternator once the engine is running, but if I didn't know the  cause of the batteries running flat, nor if it was an electrical short circuit, then like you I wouldn't want to go flying in it either!

That was my main point. Not knowing the cause of the flat batteries. It could have been too long since the plane was started, a defective alternator, or even an open circuit. Or as you suggested, a short circuit!

Yes, I finally saw the second person. Why he wasn't in the right seat with his feet on the brakes is yet another question. 

6 hours ago, n4gix said:

..Where all of the blood in the cockpit came from is a mystery begging for a clue..

I ...think.. that the guy managed to get in the Cirrus and the impact with the hangar caused him to impact the cabin interior and panel... unless the spinning prop, by some minor miracle only just nicked part of his hand/arm without causing amputation, but the odds on that seem far worse than him being thrown forward after the plane impacted the hangar..

Do not know whether to laugh at the stupidity of the pilot or cry at a plane getting damaged.

John C.

Cirrus builds a lot of safety features into their aircraft, but, unfortunately, there is still no safety feature that completely prevents acts of utter stupidity.

19 hours ago, HighBypass said:

...but the odds on that seem far worse than him being thrown forward after the plane impacted the hangar..

Ah, you are probably correct that this likely happened that way. The poor plane did strike the hangar quite hard!

One wonders why the flight was going to take place - just for pleasure, or for business or some emergency which necessitates hand propping your plane to get somewhere? If it was for the first reason, then that would have been a definite no-go IMHO, the other two, "should" have been a no-go...

When I was first learning to fly (over 50 years ago!!) we were all actually taught how to hand swing a prop safely but it was emphasised that this must never be done unless there was a second person familiar with the controls, ideally a pilot, in the cockpit - not, as seems to be this case in that video, on the wing or was he in the cockpit and just threw himself out?!

I only ever had to hand swing a prop on two aircraft. One was a lovely little single seater Luton Minor which was easy to swing and the engine started on the first attempt but the other was a Beagle Terrier which proved to be a devil to start. It belonged to a friend and together with another club member we had flown out to Inismore, an island on the west coast of Ireland. It was customary for a few planes from our airfield to fly out there on a weekend afternoon and wonder the mile or so into the only village for a bowl of excellent fresh mussels and some brown soda bread, washed down by pint or three (although the unfortunate designated pilot had to stick to lemonade!). On that trip I had drawn the short straw as the designated pilot and sat in the left seat for the flight home. Unfortunately however we found that the starter motor on the Terrier appeared to have packed in and, as there was no maintenance support available on the field, the only option to start the engine was to hand prop it. Although I was meant to be pilot on the homeward leg, we decided that it would be safer if I was the one swinging the prop as I was alcohol free so the owner of the plane sat in the left seat and did the needful with the switches. Although I had primed the engine before attempting to start it, I’m not sure if he also primed it again when he moved to the left seat and as a result flooded the engine as it took me about 30 attempts swinging the prop to start it. Furthermore the compression on the Gipsy Major, as might be expected, was far higher than that on the Luton Minor’s little 39HP engine and I was a pool of sweat with seriously aching shoulders by the time it eventually started. Thankfully that was the last time I ever had to hand swing a prop!

Bill

Edited July 5, 20205 yr by scianoir
Grammar