My guess is that the tail lifted because the thrust of the prop pulled
the airplane to the extent of the tiedown rope, which was attached to a
trailer hitch, not down at ground level. I once came within about an
inch of a similar prop strike due to this same tiedown configuration.
FWIW
Chris K
On 12/11/2018 7:18 AM, Mark Langford via KRnet wrote:
Gary Sack wrote:
I tied the tail, but this time it
was easiest to tie it to the trailer hitch on the Subaru. WARNING! Don't do
this. When she came to life, her tail lifted and ground down my pretty wood
prop just like a pencil sharpener
You must not have had it anywhere near idle speed to lift the tail.
That, to me, may be the real moral of the story. I always start mine
(with the starter) with only about 3/16" in of throttle, so I'm not in a
panic when it starts. The high vacuum of the almost closed throttle
setting helps to draw the fuel through the carb and into the cylinders,
making it start faster too.
But the absence of a pilot does lighten the load on the tail by a factor
of about ten on a taildragger, so A bungee cord on the stick would be
good too, but then I do have 20/20 hindsight. A short strap and a
ground-mounted ring (like a tie-down ring) would probably be optimal.
Thanks for posting this though...it gives us all a chance to think about
these things before we try something like that.
My hat's off to anybody that can start a VW with a wooden prop on it.
I've tried, but failed miserably. That prop doesn't have much inertia
to carry through to more than one cylinder firing, unless the engine has
very low compression (mine's about 8.5:1).
Mark Langford, Huntsville, AL
ML "at" N56ML.com
www.N56ML.com
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