Tuesday, January 11, 2022

Cessna 172N, N734FM: Accident occurred January 08, 2022 at Coastal Carolina Regional Airport (KEWN), Craven County, North Carolina

Federal Aviation Administration / Flight Standards District Office; Greensboro, North Carolina

Aircraft being prepped for flight, instructor pulled the propeller through and it kicked back and struck the student.

D2 Government Solutions LLC


Date: 08-JAN-22
Time: 15:30:00Z
Regis#: N734FM
Aircraft Make: CESSNA
Aircraft Model: 172
Event Type: ACCIDENT
Highest Injury: SERIOUS
Flight Crew 1 no injuries
Pax 1 serious injuries
Aircraft Missing: No
Damage: UNKNOWN
Activity: INSTRUCTION
Flight Phase: STANDING (STD)
Operation: 91
City: NEW BERN
State: NORTH CAROLINA

4 comments:

  1. I am surprised there have been so few propellor accidents . Piston engines with their potential to be live one should avoid handling the prop unless you can completely isolate the magnetos by removing the leads .
    Iwas airforce trained and we did not handle propellors .
    If you are going to hand start do not pull it through .

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  2. who was on the brakes?
    The procedure and commands for hand propping are:

    Person out front says, “GAS ON, SWITCH OFF, THROTTLE CLOSED, BRAKES SET.”
    Pilot seat occupant, after making sure the fuel is ON, mixture is RICH, magneto switch is OFF, throttle is CLOSED, and brakes are SET, says, “GAS ON, SWITCH OFF, THROTTLE CLOSED, BRAKES SET.”
    Person out front, after pulling the propeller through to prime the engine says, “BRAKES AND CONTACT.”
    Pilot seat occupant checks the brakes SET and turns the magnetos switch ON, then says, “BRAKES AND CONTACT.”
    continued @ flightliteracy.com/hand-propping/

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  3. Description implies no one sitting at the controls ?

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  4. Aircraft magneto P-lead control design plays a role in hot magneto incidents.

    Shop machine safety controls use circuit-continuity-to-operate wiring such that an open circuit stops the machine. Has to be that way so that a broken or mouse-chewed wire path doesn't prevent stopping the machine.

    Magneto P-leads have the opposite concern. You don't want to rely on having circuit continuity to operate such that an open circuit disables magneto function in flight. The P-lead circuit design is ground-to-disable magneto function. Placing the ignition switch to off is supposed to ground both P-leads, disabling both mags.

    Any discontinuity in the conductor path of the P-lead on either magneto places the magneto in a ready to operate condition. A loose terminal, broken wire or bad contact through a worn ignition switch in the "off" position is all it takes to enable a mag.

    The impulse coupling is another contributing factor, because moving the prop slowly doesn't prevent spark production. The snap of the mag results in spark production no matter how slowly you turned the prop.

    A simple mistake of moving the prop to bring a blade around for nick inspection instead of bending down to check it is all it would take to get thumped by the prop if a P-lead path is open circuit and fuel vapor was compressed during the move.

    Most pilots know all of that and won't rely on both P-leads being grounded just because the switch is in the off position. Have to keep your mind right on that and prevent any others nearby from making that mistake.

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