Starting Aircraft
(New Zealand Press Association)
DUNEDIN, Jan. 3. The engine of a Bristol Freighter aircraft was started using a golf club, a length of rope and a station waggon so that a cargo of 5} tons Of fruit could be flown from the Alexandra airport this morning. When the plane’s port starter motor refused to turn over early this morning, the crew was faced with the possibility of calling an aircraft from Christchurch or Blenheim. The 18-cylinder engine was too large to turn over by hand although compression could be raised. The pilot, Captain R. Cole, managed to overcome the awkward situation.
Leaning out of a cabin window with a golf club in one hand, he looped a length of rope around a propeller blade. The other end of the rope was tied to a fourcylinder station waggon and the vehicle driven forward at speed for several yards. After 30 minutes of “stop-start” pulling by the station waggon—just turning the blades enough for the engine to turn over—the motor fired and started running. The rope slipped off, and the freighter—under charter to National Airways Corporation from Safeair, Ltd,—was able to take off, just 90 minutes late, at 6.30 a.m.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19680104.2.126
Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31568, 4 January 1968, Page 10
Word Count
200Starting Aircraft Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31568, 4 January 1968, Page 10
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