A few years ago, just after I bought ZS-WEC, I experienced a prop strike too. I was on the tarmac in front of the hangar, waiting for my instructor for a conversion flight, and swung the prop to start. That was a cold morning, and for some reason, the engine would not start that day. Then, after several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to try something I had been shown on a Tiger Moth: it sometimes work if you turn the prop backwards a few turns before you swing the prop.
When the engine started, it went full speed instantly. ZS-WEC being a taidragger, and the front wheels being chocked, the tail started to rise. I ran towards the wing, with the idea of... I don't know! Trying to do something to counterbalance the plane, using my bodyweight? By the time I reached the wing, the prop had started being eaten, bit by bit, by the concrete pavement, making horrible, loud noises in the process. The aircraft raised all the way up, and finally came to rest, tail up, on the spinner tip. Amazingly, the spinner was barely scratched. Thinking of it, I did the most stupid thing. I could have been killed or maimed by the broken pieces of the prop. I should have stayed clear. Since then, I have never started ZS-WEC without having either secured the tail, or used some knowledgeable help. The sore point was that nobody ever believed me. People at the airfield simply thought I had left my throttle wide open. And nobody ever gave me a good, convincing explanation of that engine going full speed either. Must have been a Tokoloshe! (South African Leprechaun) Serge Vidal KR2 "Kilimanjaro Cloud" Paris, France
