Starting the engine
The start as a procedure with hazards: clearing the ramp, the brakes and the throttle hand, oil pressure in thirty seconds, cold and hot starts, external power, hand propping, and the conditions that mean stop.
12 min read · The airplane: engine and systems
After this lesson you can
- Prepare the airplane and the ramp for an engine start, and say what each precaution prevents.
- Start the engine under normal, cold and difficult conditions, and with external power.
- State the starter limitations and the oil pressure limit, and what happens when either is exceeded.
- Recognize the conditions that require an aborted start and the immediate shutdown that follows.
- Describe the hand propping procedure and the reason it needs two trained people.
Airplane engines vary substantially, and the specific procedure for starting one is the approved engine start checklist in the airplane's AFM/POH. The Airplane Flying Handbook does not replace that checklist; it supplies the generally accepted hazard mitigation practices around it, which are what this lesson teaches.
The private pilot standards treat starting as a task with its own knowledge and risk items: starting under various conditions, starting with external power, the limitations associated with starting, and the conditions that lead to an aborted start. A start that goes wrong does its damage in the first thirty seconds, which is why the procedure is learned before the first flight rather than after.
The rest of this lesson
- 1.Before the starter turns
- 2.The start, and the thirty seconds that follow it
- 3.Conditions: cold, hot, flooded, and external power
- 4.Hand propping: the procedure and the commands
- 5.The aborted start
These 5 sections, their figures, the checks along the way and the end-of-lesson quiz come with the PPL track. Paid once, yours for good.
Key terms
Try to recall each definition before turning the card.