Hand spanking C47

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Cat Driver
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Re: Hand spanking C47

Post by Cat Driver »

Cat, didn't you once get a Twin Beech going by using a modification of that 'SOP'? :)
Yes I did, it is a bit easier than starting the PBY that way because the engines are closer to the ground. :mrgreen:
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switchflicker
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Re: Hand spanking C47

Post by switchflicker »

Question- When you did the rope trick from one engine to another, did you let the engine with the working starter light up at the same time as the one with the lame starter? Seem like that might keep you a tad busy.
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Cat Driver
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Re: Hand spanking C47

Post by Cat Driver »

No, I had the wheels chocked and the brakes on.

I used the starter on the engine I was using to start the other one with the mags off.

985's start real easy if they are primed correct, so when the engine with the starter that was dead started I set the RPM to 800 and got out and retrieved my rope and pulled the chocks and started the other engine and went flying.

You do not want the engine that is being used to start the other engine to fire up as the rope could get really clusterfucked.


It is a very simple procedure actually.
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switchflicker
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Re: Hand spanking C47

Post by switchflicker »

Cat Driver wrote: You do not want the engine that is being used to start the other engine to fire up as the rope could get really clusterfucked.


It is a very simple procedure actually.
Of course. That makes a whole lot of sense. Elsewise you might (would) have a monster vertical weed eater!!
Thanks
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Spandau
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Re: Hand spanking C47

Post by Spandau »

Bacunayagua wrote: Sun Oct 22, 2017 2:37 pm I'll do you one better, I found someone to hire me as DEC into a two crew aircraft. Something about leveraging the current employment market to my advantage.
That might be a slightly Freudian way of saying that your current employers had hit the bottom of the barrel and THERE YOU WERE. I wouldn't go bragging about it much. Good SOP's are the only way to go - nobody will argue that - and thankfully we've evolved enough to have them, but they are STANDARD operating practices or procedures, not a replacement for common sense, ability, experience, or talent. And you'll find that many, many situations in this game are decidedly NON-STANDARD, and multiple unrelated problems are real and do happen, and when you run into them (and you will) that you'll have to ad-lib sometimes and be able to think on your feet, even if it means throwing the precious rule book into the fire. You'll benefit (ie live longer) by listening to and considering what some of the wise old pelicans like Cat and others have to say rather than standing up and waving your dick at them.


I remember something someone said once about using a ski-doo to start a Dak was kosher but using a pickup would often result in a bent engine mount, but it might have just been "bar talk". It was something I never acquired the bragging rights to. I have however seen what happens when 50' of yellow nylon rope gets tossed into a Twin Otter prop... It makes probably about an acre's worth of fine yellow fuzz! I can imagine how much of a pain it must have been to cut all that wadded up rope off the prop shaft! :-) And I'll bet it was a nice cold day with a refreshing breeze too. Keep the pics and stories coming.
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Re: Hand spanking C47

Post by Cat Driver »

You'll benefit (ie live longer) by listening to and considering what some of the wise old pelicans like Cat and others have to say rather than standing up and waving your dick at them.
I really do not pay much attention to dick wavers because I am not really interested in dicks. :finga:

For sure aviation has improved immensely since the days of the DC3 being the standard of aviation.

However the big improvement in safety can be attributed to aircraft design and engine reliability improvements far more than improvements in pilot skills.

Those of us from that era can look back and relate to the improvements based on having flown in both era's the newer generations can only relate to what aviation is today and then to make them self's look superior they fall back on what they read about the accident rates back then.

Where do they think aviation would be if we had not kept it going so improvements could be made? :roll:
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Spandau
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Re: Hand spanking C47

Post by Spandau »

That kinda reminds me of what they used to say about AD's... how they were originally written in blood.
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Re: Hand spanking C47

Post by Siddley Hawker »

... Good SOP's are the only way to go - nobody will argue that - and thankfully we've evolved enough to have them, but they are STANDARD operating practices or procedures, not a replacement for common sense, ability, experience, or talent. And you'll find that many, many situations in this game are decidedly NON-STANDARD, and multiple unrelated problems are real and do happen, and when you run into them (and you will) that you'll have to ad-lib sometimes and be able to think on your feet, even if it means throwing the precious rule book into the fire. You'll benefit (ie live longer) by listening to and considering what some of the wise old pelicans like Cat and others have to say rather than standing up and waving your dick at them.
+1 !

Trouble is though, should you use your common sense and bend the SOPS a little, if it gets back to the powers that be your ass - to put it indelicately - will be grass. I once watched a -8 get deiced. Nothing unusual about that, SOPS all the way and the little "When In Doubt" video from MOT to back that decision up. But. the outside temp was -13, and the wind was gusting to 25 knots, blowing the loose snow around a bit and most of the fluid wound up on the ramp anyway. The only visible ice on the airplane was a thin line of rime on the wing leading edge, that the guy would have picked up while over the water on approach, flying through a couple hundred feet of strato cu. Would I have called for deicing? No. The airplane obviously flew well and never fell out of the sky on approach, odds were it would do the same on departure.

I'm a little surprised that SOPS has even made it into this thread except peripherally. Starting a DC-3 - or any other airplane - using anything other than the starter, I would call a "Get-my-ass-out-of-here-and-back-to-base" procedure, to be used once. About as far from a SOP as it's possible to get.
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