I had to hand-prop the 150 I learned in, because the CFI didn't believe in wasting starter motors on students! Later, working at a flying school that did believe in starter motors, I forced myself into the habit of slipping the aircraft keys over my finger and listening for the "tink" of metal on metal before turning the prop to fit a towbar. (The Warrior props always stopped straight up and down.) On a miserable night when I shouldn't have gone flying but did anyway, I shut down outside the hangar, breathed a huge sigh of relief at having lived, then went outside to put the plane to bed. I put my hand on the prop to turn it - no "tink". Yep, I'd left the keys in and the mags live.

I’m one of those guys here in Alaska that props his Cub since the day I purchased it. Honestly propping my engine helps me to know my engines right. If it doesn’t fire on the 2nd or 3rd pull something’s changed. Very informative video.

Strongly disagree with the use of "switch on/switch off" for hand bombing. It can lead to disaster because they sound the same, especially with background noise (you might only make out "swi-ah"... was that on or off?). ONLY use "Switch Off" for ignition off, and "Contact" for ignition on (he says Contact at one point, but uses the other terms the rest of the time. If I hand bomb somebody I brief them very carefully on Switch Off/Contact). You can't confuse the word Contact for the words Switch Off. I got burned with I failed to brief a guy on Switch Off/Contact while hand bombing his plane, and I told him Switch Off, then repeated Switch Off because I thought he hadn't heard me first time. He assumed my second Switch Off was Switch On and I got a nice surprise while pulling the blade to finish priming the engine. Beyond that beef, great vid!

Ha ha, the next suggested video was ColinFurze "Spinning belt of knives"

Had one of those "This is why we have check-lists" moments last month. During shut-down of our 172, I did the temporary Mags to Off check, engine just kept right on running! Broken P-lead. I snagged the plane, parked it in the hangar, and for good measure, taped a big sign warning "HOT MAG" onto the prop itself so no one would try pulling it out by the prop before they saw the snag sheet in the journey log.

I loved the little 'last true cowboy' vignette at the end.

In the CAP we taught every cadet to safely hand prop a plane. A lot of anxiety for the untrained, they considered hand propping a big accomplishment. It is something every pilot should know.

That Beaver has a really nice engine.! Thank you for sharing Steve.!

That plough turn reminded me of a time I was sailing in my little sailboat in a higher than normal wind. It was light enough that when I came to the point of coming about into the wind to change to the opposite tack it didn't have the momentum to carry through the turn, so after a couple of tries I actually had to pull out a paddle for some oomph. No propeller to help getting through it. I understood immediately the concepts/physics described here for the plough turn. Great video. Love the Beaver.

Good one! Only had to hand bomb a Beaver a couple times in 40 years but very useful skill. One of the drawbacks of so much time in close proximity to the R985 is that I'm a little bit deaf and the words "off" and "on" sometimes sound pretty similar even when shouted from a distance. I kinda prefer the word "contact" for mags on. I did hear it a couple times. :)

Wow. I asked for the Beaver training video yesterday, and got it today! Such service!! ...AH!The Beaver! Art at a standstill. Turn that prop, bob that float, push that primer..... Now it becomes Kinetic Art! I know your video is gonna make these guys successful!

This is 100% the type of flying I want to do and most of the reason I'm working on my PPL !

Had to do a report on DH in grade school, the beaver was the workhorse and the Dash 8 was just nearing production. When I wrote them asking for any information they could send me I never expected the five pounds or so of print materials they sent. Those were great times to be a kid.

Love the 337 in the background!

I can’t imagine how stressful that would be by yourself on the water. Bush pilots are some tough guys.

42C in lovely northern California today but at least we get a flight chops video.

What a fantastic demo of hand cranking a Beaver! Kudos. Thank you!

I love seeing flight videos here in Alaska. I live here, so its great to see your adventures, experience, and training all in the Last Frontier. Keep up the great work and the great videos

Awesome! cant wait to watch. Beavers are such a beautiful Aircraft. Lucky!!

I work at a small airport as a refueler. Fueling Beavers are a pain, but can't wait to start my pilot training.

I love your videos!!!!!!!!!!! Especially the bush plane videos, with the Beavers! Keep it up. Thanks!

I was doing some training with an instructor in a C-150 when it blew a cylinder. It wasn't a big deal because we were just practicing circuits on an insanely long runway. The next day I took out another trainer that had just come in. The previous student left the keys on the dash in plain view from the front of the aircraft. As I did the walk around I decided to pull the prop thru to check for all the compression bumps. I counted to one and the engine cam alive, the prop whirling inches from my face !!! Luckily there was only about 2 seconds of fuel in the carburetor...but that was an eternity since I was off balance and leaning out over my front foot. The key tumblers had worn out, allowing the previous student to remove the key with one of the mags still hot.

What a beautiful airplane. Very interesting. Thanks for sharing!

Another great video. Thanks Mr. Chops

I am really enjoying this series 🤙🏼

Fantastic content as always Steve. Beautiful scenery too. 👌

Excellent production Steve!

Nice video as always Steve, good to see you enjoying the float training :)

Honestly refreshing seeing an aviation video without a bunch of random words capitalized... Beaver HAND PROPPED?! Anyway... cool video!

I love the sound of a radial

Nice looking skymaster in the background.

That radial sounds sooooo good. :)

this was a great series

Keep up the great work man, you have been a huge inspiration for me so thank you and keep up the great work

WOW learned a lot.... thanks guys.

Love that beaver sound!

My first plane didn't have a starter... Fortunate I never had an issue with hand propping for the 10 years I flew it. I did have an issue with some of the weather I was working with to do it...LOL.

Great job Chops! Get familiar with those scary hand props, but never comfortable eh? Look forward to your eventual jet certification.

Can’t wait for more Beaver episodes!!!

Very cool and informative!

Please do a video of your whole sim setup

Always fun to jump in a beaver, the de hav beaver is awsome

Awesome stuff. Love this series.

I had an A&P mechanic at the FBO I worked at explain how to ‘flip the prop’. One thing he said was to use your dominate leg as a pendulum to help you move away from the prop arc. Swing your leg forward, then swing it back as you flip the prop causing your body to move away! I watched him flip start a Luscombe that way. It still gave me the heebygeebies!😳

Super cool 😎 thanks man 🙏

Seen a guy hand prop a Taylorcraft this spring by himself, no chocks, no tiedown. He swung it through a bunch of times then went into the cabin, came back out and it started on the first blade, I think he forgot the mags, It pretty near ran him down. He tried to grab it by the wing strut, it swung around went full throttle across the fueling area and plowed into a hedge. Lessons for me, slow down, think, confirm engine control positions ,tie down the tailwheel, or have someone else in the seat. I felt pretty bad for the guy and worse for the old T Craft.

Great vids keep up the great work I really enjoy your vids

Wanting to get my rating in Michigan - maybe in a month! Hope the border opens soon!

freaking awesome

Great vid guys👍

Seaplane rating training has evolved since I got mine in the early 1960s in a Piper J3 Cub. I don’t remember my instructor teaching me “plow turns”, only step turns when the wind was too strong for a low RPM turn and it wasn’t required for my check flight. However, maybe it was demonstrated or I learned how to do them on my own. It’s possible the lakeside FBO that rented floatplanes intentionally didn’t teach the method of turning to the right when headed upwind and then turning left to complete the 180 to taxi downwind because they didn’t trust pilots to do it correctly to avoid prop wear/damage. If the wind wasn’t strong enough for a step turn (or, if it was but there wasn’t enough room to do one) I was taught to sail backwards with directional control, sometimes with the engine off if it was a long distance. It’s possible that another reason was to increase the rental time period.

I have always believed the commands are "Switch off" and "Contact." Anything else can be misheard and confused with really bad consequences...

I flew a Beaver floatplane for 40 years, contact was what I always said when the mags were hot and switches off when I shut down. The PW R985 can be fun to hand start especially as it lacks an impulse coupling in the magneto which most other small aircraft have. Moving the prop while the mags are on isn’t as hazardous as it is on a Piper or Cessna but still bad practice! Some pilots prefer hand propping the two blade engine versus the three blade, each has their upside and downside. This pilot prefers NOT to hand prop and fortunately seldom ever had to. Every pilot who flys in remote areas should know how to hand prop, it is not difficult but you must have someone who knows how to show you. The only injury I ever had from hand propping was a cut finger from a rough prop blade. Two bladed Beavers on floats can get rough leading edges from the erosion caused by water spray or water vortex at the prop tips while taking or taxing on the water.

Well that was a cool transfer of knowledge 😅

Thank you! With modern aircraft pilots forget the value of magneto fired naturally asperated engines. No battery no problem! Computer controlled engines need some redesign for aviation. Great channel!

I once accidentally switched the master off during my circuit training. Engine ran fine. Can’t trust that master in either position.

I’ve never hand-propped my Cherokee. I think I should learn how to do it

I got a 46’ 7ac Champ for my 16th birthday and hand prop it daily for the last handful of years even as a student pilot

You should make a video about your survival vest with the Scuba Reg and other gear...

Flying rc float planes really helps me understand how wind can effect an airplane on the water.

I held my breath when that very experienced man pulled that prop thru because of the position of his body relative to the arc of the prop. Had it fired, or backfired, unexpectantly the poor soul would have been decapitated. A very old timer trained me and he emphasized to never, ever place your fingers OVER the edge of the blade in order to pull it thru. However, I do not see how one could do that in this float plane situation. Therefore, I would do the unthinkable in the bush...I would carry a SPARE, fully charged, battery to use in case the main battery went dead...and to hell with the weight disadvantage!

Oh, in the background is a Cessna Skymaster, we have one of these as a model and have created a specially made prototype, an image of the Cessna 550 Spectrum. Span 2.40 meters, length 2.1 meters, so Greetings from Germany

Wow, hand prop the beaver ... nice done.

Maximum amount of radial warmup always appreciated, for next time ;)

I no longer say "ON" and "OFF" when hand bombing because they sound pretty much the same. I had a scary experience with a student. From that I tell them we'll use the words "CONTACT" and "OFF" and even comfirm with our thumbs up and down to make it even more clear. Fly safe!

"... but if you do, it's a million hits..." Martin gives you the KZfaq version of the Devil's sales pitch at the Crossroads...

It started but the order of the process seemed mixed up. If you are trying to get mixture into the cylinders why would you have it full lean and fully throttled(low idle)? I would guess that setting the carburetor for starting, full rich and cracked throttle, would be more appropriate for cylinder priming. Fully throttled and leaned seems more appropriate for an initial roll over, (when making sure the lower cylinders are clear, not primed.) larger radials have drain valves on the lower cylinders that are opened for those first 2-3 revolutions just in case they filled with oil or fuel since last shutdown. This is done even with a working electric starter.

I used to start a Gypsy Major by hand, always checked switches off myself, I looked at the switches, before I touched the prop. Then pulled through so I went away from the prop if I slipped. Can be dangerous.

I waited a month for this 😂

I have hand propped a few aircraft in my time from behind and from the front and radials are the easiest, I have started but I would not want to prop an aircraft on floats, especially on my own as I know I would end up in the water and the aircraft on the other side of the lake.

Would be great to know what survival gear etc. that Martin packs in the extra pouches on his life vest. Does he pack differently for back country flights vs. lessons on the local lake?

0:37, it's been a loooooooong time since YT has used hits lol

i know you've probably already left... but please fly that skymaster

Someone should have told Jimmy Stewart he could have just hand propped the Phoenix.

I Love you man!!!!:)

Love learning about float flying. What is the green tape for on the GoPro at 5:56?

Why does water from a lake chew up a prop more than flying through rain, or does rain chew up a prop just the same?

Where is this wonderful place?

Is there a possibility that a cylinder can pop when hand spun in reverse? Can a cylinder get enough of an air fuel charge to pop in reverse and force the engine to start up in the correct direction. Would the spark timing backwards be sufficient ? Either direction I treat the engine as live.

How does it work transferring an FAA rating to a TC licence? Do you need to hold an FAA licence to get the rating initially before transferring it to a TC licence?

It's a very disconcerting feeling to prop start any plane. I've started a Beaver with a triple-bladed prop and Cessna 180s before. It doesn't help that the back of the prop is pretty sharp, or that the pilots always seems to be smiling for some reason.

Now show us how to hand prop the turbo beaver variant. :P

My Stinson had no impulse mags. Could not be started without battery power.

Looks like there was a fatal accident in that Piper back in the 80s.

Second! Love the vids Steve!!

>...but if you do it's a million hits. I too will have gallows humor at my own hanging. 👍

Did you fly the 337 while you were there? I love to see your thoughts on it!

So if water damages a prop I would assume that take off and landing on snow will also damage a prop in the same way...true???

What's the 'CIFFTIRS' placard on the dashboard? GUMPS I know, but CIFFTIRS doesn't get any Google hits.

CFM 56 is a little hard to hand start

There are also seaplanes in south Korea.

I was a CH-47 pilot for 23 years. I hand-propped it every other Wednesday. You can milk anything with nipples.

Hey Steve! Great video but the plow turn discussion and demonstration is a crazy idea. Crazy bad. We can discuss at length if needed but please don’t do this in real life if there’s big winds. Please please please!!

I’ve hand propped a few birds in my time through the years but propping standing on that float behind the propeller...dam.

Hey Steve, could you tell us how you capture the radio coms? (here or on the patreon page). I'm recording some of my own flights, but haven't found a practical (aka "affordable") way to do get voice coms recorded by the gopro.

So plow turning is basically drifting on the water

And keep your rubber (or float) side down!

Paul Poberezny handpropped a dc3 in korea

180 plow turns should never be done that way but rather with short bursts of power Next time use right aileron and notice how much tighter it will turn