Re: Oil pressure gauge
Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:39 pm
That's a little unfair... I have operated in very low temperatures and I have frequently been asked to help my fellow aviators start their engines in very low temps.You might be able to get away with that in England or British Columbia, or Thailand
I've usually been successful with only a few frustrations.
As for the idle jet and starting with the throttle closed, I use this technique for engines that are already hot and it usually works. In this way I avoid flooding the engine. With a hot engine you can never be certain of your start point, do I need to prime?
Primed might mean flooded, so let's try simple first.
Sometimes I'll give the throttle one pump with a warm engine and an accelerator pump before using the starter. But never more than one as noted above, in cold weather you risk pooling the fuel, in both cold and warm weather you risk flooding.
If I only have the accelerator pump, in cold weather I'll pump once and suck in twice by hand each time. In this way each prime using the throttle is drawn straight into the cylinders by hand.
There's also no ignition source to spark the mixture, backfire, and cause a fire in the carb box or worse.
All propellers are supposed to be fitted in a position for swinging, but some mechanics don't like hand propping and deliberately put it in the wrong position.
The Cherokee's maintenance manuals specify the correct position and so in this type at least the mechanics are counter to the manufacturer's requirements.
The problem is that we have to turn props by hand from time to time and mechanic's opinions can lead to highly dangerous situations.
The Warrior would not start, I wasn't there at the beginning otherwise she would have started.
I helped them out, but the propeller was in the wrong position, and so I had to be doubly careful how I turned it.
The aeroplane did not fly that day... With the prop in the correct position it might have, Michael would have swung it!
Imagine that aeroplane being stuck somewhere and a desperate pilot trying to swing a wrongly positioned propeller with the greater risk of serious injury...