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Old August 24th 05, 03:19 PM
Ron Wanttaja
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On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 12:56:31 +0000, Scott wrote:

jls wrote:

FAA
rules require a person of suitable age and discretion to be at the
controls when the aircraft is hand-propped.


Good advice, but how is that accomplished these days when the airports
are SO dead that there's beans and corn growing in the terminal building
in the layer of dust on the counter and you're out there by yourself
(like I am 99.5% of the time at my airport) ???

The best way to avoid runaways is to simply use a rope between the
tailspring and a hangar post or fence post or airport tie-down ring.


Or a remote-release hook, either those made for towing gliders ($$$$) or a
homemade one. One guy on this page had a pretty slick setup...the hook was
released by pressing the left rudder pedal all the way. See the last picture
on:

http://www.bowersflybaby.com/tech/tailhook.html

In my ~7 years of flying the original Fly Baby, there was only twice that I was
unable to find a tiedown rope or an anchor point for my own rope. Once was on a
grass strip in the middle of nowhere, the second time is when the engine quietly
went to sleep on final approach on a 15-degree day.

Ron Wanttaja