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  • #31
    Those of you that talk of hand propping - have you ever hand propped a 540 powered plane? A long time ago an airplane mechanic friend told me that he would not hand prop anything bigger than an O360. I respected his opinion and have only propped 4 cylinder engines. Mark

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    • #32
      I haven't since my 540 is on the bench still. But this is certainly something I will look into, but slowly and safely. I want to know if it's an option that works before I'm trying to do it in the sticks with a dead battery.

      Depending on how well my solar charger works, I might never need to do it. It will act like a solar powered battery maintainer when the airplane is parked, and if I get caught in the sticks with a dead battery, I might need to hang out for a day or two in order to get enough charge to start, which isn't the end of the world.

      Whatever works is fine with me, but I will have plan B and have explored using it before I have an actual emergency.

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      • #33
        Here is a guy and propping a Pponk (O520) with a three blade MT.


        I hope to never have to hand prop my Continental IO360 but I do know the FI Continentals can be propped.
        Scratch Built 4-place Bearhawk. Continental IO-360, 88" C203 McCauley prop.

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        • #34
          With the earthx jump starting pack being as small, light, and handy as it is, I carry it everywhere in the airplane.

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          • #35
            Originally posted by whee View Post
            Here is a guy and propping a Pponk (O520) with a three blade MT.


            I hope to never have to hand prop my Continental IO360 but I do know the FI Continentals can be propped.
            With a three blade MT - that is not an easy plane to hand-prop....
            A long two blade would be a lot easier.

            We spent 15 minutes swinging on a Super Cub prop the other weekend, with a carb. LOTS of fiddling with the mixture to get the prime right. The engine must have done 200 revolutions before the thing started.... "Easy"
            I am convinced I could hand swing my plane a lot faster than that! With the cylinders primed of course... But I am not rushing out to try it. Never had a totally flat battery yet, and I hope not to.

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            • #36
              Originally posted by jaredyates View Post
              With the earthx jump starting pack being as small, light, and handy as it is, I carry it everywhere in the airplane.
              I would absolutely have one of those with an EFI system.

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              • #37
                I did some googling yesterday and I saw several hits that said hand propping a IO-540 with an MT prop is not fun. One of them used 4 letter words a lot. I hope I never have to do it, but I do want to make sure I can.

                For me one of the biggest reasons I want an EFI is dead nuts reliable starting, every time. I am going to use it as a bush plane so it is out and back, shutting the airplane off in the middle of nowhere. Starting reliably is almost as important as running reliably. I guess that is where my "comfort" with EFI comes from. But if I can be convinced that the mechanical FI's can be made to start as reliably, I could definitely be swayed.

                I flew a trip several years ago with a guy that lived in Alaska. He was on his 4th bush plane. I can't remember how his first 2 "ended", but his 3rd was swallowed by the tide. He landed on a beach, well below the high tide line. An hour later it wouldn't start. Even hand propping.

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                • #38
                  I bought one of these, a while back;



                  The 150 is a pretty big unit. They make several smaller ones, but all of my equipment is diesel powered - very high compression- so I got the 150. It starts my Kubota 70hp tractor, with an absolutely DEAD battery. (I refuse to buy a tractor battery before Spring). It weighs 7#, which certainly isn't a bag of feathers, but I guarantee it's a heck of an insurance policy, for a trip to the outback!

                  Bill

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