Rotax hand start?

[Yenn]

A friend of mine landed on a beach, left the plane for a while (went for a flight in a C172), then when he came back found he had left the master switch on and the battery was flat. It ended OK the C172 went to get jumper leads. My question is can you hand start a Rotax 912 I have never tried, but I did start a 503 once.

 

On the beach is not a good place to be stuck, having to haul a Savannah up above the high tide wouldn't be fun.

 

 

[Guest Crezzi]

[Happyflyer]

A friend of mine landed on a beach, left the plane for a while (went for a flight in a C172), then when he came back found he had left the master switch on and the battery was flat. It ended OK the C172 went to get jumper leads. My question is can you hand start a Rotax 912 I have never tried, but I did start a 503 once.On the beach is not a good place to be stuck, having to haul a Savannah up above the high tide wouldn't be fun.

Can't argue with the video. I would guess you could only hand prop the 80 hp 912. If a slipper clutch were fitted it would be harder still. I would think a 100 hp 912s with slipper clutch would be well nigh impossible to hand prop. Even when the sprag clutch is a bit worn and it can't turn it over fast enough it won't start.

 

 

[Birdseye]

Don't even think about hand starting an injected 912.

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

The video is bogus......had to have fiddled with the ignition boxes.

 

 

[pylon500]

The video is bogus......had to have fiddled with the ignition boxes.

Yep, hand start two strokes?, no problem.

But a 912 , no way.

 

Not even with a big ol' wooden prop, let alone one of them multi blade composite things.

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

There us a safety circuit in the 912 ign moduals...you need 400 engine rpm before they come alive.

 

 

[spacesailor]

And I was always told "stand behind the prop" The plane will move away from you & the pressure will push you away from the prop!

 

spacesailor

 

 

[Downunder]

Seems a very suspect video. Most 912's, including mine, seem to need a revolution or two of the prop to fire......

 

Maybe it was a very old model engine with a different ignition from what we use now?

 

 

[pylon500]

And I was always told "stand behind the prop" The plane will move away from you & the pressure will push you away from the prop!spacesailor

I've always used that technique for that reason, and another;

A prop is not just a disc, it has depth, so when flicking from the front (even as he says with your fingers not hanging past the trailing edge), your fingers are still as far into the disc depth as they can get.

 

If flicking from behind, your fingers are minimally into the disc depth, and if you're very slow, you will only be hit by the back of the blade, not the leading edge.

 

You also possibly have better access to throttle and mag switches.

 

 

[Glenn Wilson]

I was directed to this thread after my recent query about hand starting a 912. No definitive answer here apart from a LAME discredit of the Youtube guy actually hand starting his. Smoke and mirrors? It started and that is good enough for me.