I pulled the engine through with the prop to check cylinder compression (I had just put a new jug on it), and all four felt good. My wife and daughter were just starting to close the long hanger door when I noticed the plane had rolled forward and needed to be a few feet back. I put my right hand on the prop and pushed. That's about all I remember until I rolled over in the grass and looked at my arm, my arm that I could not feel. The next three hours were spent in the hospital. I won't get into that, but I needed a morphine IV to keep the pain under control once the shock faded away.What happened was the engine fired and ran a few revolutions taking all 225 pounds of me with it around once, then striking my right arm cutting almost through the extractor muscle. My wife said I was just gone' It threw me 12 feet out of the hangar (hence the title "Hangar Flying")
My wife checked the ignition switch the next day, and it positively was not on. The mixture was pulled lean. So how could this have happened? I spent a full day with a friend looking for likely causes. I even ordered a new ignition switch, even though I shut it off once a month with the key as per the Bendix AD. It had never failed in three years.
I own a Piper Cherokee, and if you do pay careful attention, the ignition circuit "P" lead runs from the magnetos to the ignition switch and then back to the mags through the shielding. When you shut off the key, it shorts or grounds out the primary circuit of the mags. My switch tested good, but the circuit back to the mag did not. It goes through a box at the firewall and the ground lead attaches to a 10-32 bolt. That's all. It's supposed to carry the ground through the bolt to the ground shielding back to the mags. I had a slightly loose and bad connection which, if you wiggle it, would open up. We almost didn't find it because it's way up at the top of the dash above all the radios, etc. Apparently, pulling the prop through to check the compression sucked just enough fuel past the fuel shut off valve to give the engine its near fatal prime.
We all get complacent about safety things around our airplanes. I see my friends do things and catch myself doing things from time to time. We all hear about the prop and the long list of the lives of fellow pilots, mechanics, and occasionally improperly briefed passengers it has taken or disrupted permanently. I was spared permanent physical damage, however, the psychological damage will stay with me my whole life. I feel that God did not want my children to see me die this October evening. I will never act the same around a prop again. I am thankful for this lesson and hope you may learn from my mistake.
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This page last updated on 10-27-0