Forum: aviation.stackexchange.com
Tags: <propeller><ground-operations>
Title: Is it OK to move a light aircraft by pushing or pulling the propeller?
Question: It's very common to see pilots moving a light aircraft by pushing or pulling on the prop, either because there's no tow bar available or simply out of preference or convenience. Is this a reasonable thing to do or can it damage the prop or engine in some way?

Answers:
sents: text: A couple of my CFIs have asked me to help them park the airplane (in absence of a tow bar) when I was pushing the airplane by putting one hand on the hub and the other on the propeller near the hub, and them (the CFIs) pushing the tail down and nose wheel elevated.
text: But according to AOPA , it is not a good thing: ... never push or pull on the prop blades.
text: Forget what anyone has told you about pulling near the hub or the strength of the propeller.
text: Aluminum blades can bend, and it doesn’t take much to put the blades out of track with one another.
text: This PDF says the same thing: Avoid pulling the airplane around by the prop.
text: Yes, this seems the perfect solution to a vexing problem of how to change the airplane’s position without having to walk around and get the tow bar, but it’s worthwhile to make the extra effort.
text: Neither the engine nor the prop particularly benefit from the loads imposed by horsing the whole airplane around.
answer_details: author: aviation.stackexchange.com/users/65/Farhan
score: 37
sents: text: Classic example of one corner case leading to a blanket belief.
text: Grabbing a propeller by the tip, especially a wooden prop, can cause damage.
text: In use, the tips generate most of the thrust but are also held straight by the rotational forces.
text: Pulling on a prop right beside the hub will cause no harm -
text: that's where the propellor thrust goes anyway.
text: If you grab the prop on both sides the airframe won't know that the engine isn't running.
text: So, here's a Rule of Thumb: if you cannot touch the prop hub with your thumb while pulling on the prop, you are holding it too far out.
answer_details: author: aviation.stackexchange.com/users/1632/paul
score: 22
sents: text: Well, grabbing the propeller at the blade root and pulling from there cannot hurt it.
text: Why?
text: Because the thrust imparted by the propeller to the aircraft is applied at exactly the same place.
text: In other words, the propeller pulls the airplane through the air at the hub.
text: You are so close to the hub that you're not going to create a significant bending moment along the blade.
text: On the other hand grabbing the propeller at the tips would be questionable at best, and ill-advised!
answer_details: author: aviation.stackexchange.com/users/4495/Bob Denny
score: 9
sents: text: I asked around at my gliding club about this, the consensus seems to be that it won't harm the plane as long as I didn't use excessive force.
text: The reason for doing it is to not have to walk from wing to wing to move the plane.
text: The main counterpoint is that you shouldn't move a plane by yourself unless you're very sure you won't hit anything (another plane, the hangar walls, etc).
answer_details: author: aviation.stackexchange.com/users/2791/KJP
score: 7
sents: text: By deviating from the standard procedure (using the tow bar) you incur into the following risks:
text: Mechanical damage: you risk damaging propeller itself if you don't pull from as close as possible to the hub.
text: Furthermore, being more complex, variable pitch blades obviously imply more risk.
text: Arguably, the forces in play during taxiing are similar to those exerted manually through pulling.
text: Also, in my flight school, during pre-flight inspection we actually perform some push/pulls to assess that the propeller, hub, and drive are ok -- suggesting that there is no mechanical stress derived from doing so.
text: Safety risks: although arguably rare, you may accidentally start the engine through hand-swinging.
text: I was instructed in my flight school to shut down the engine through the mixture control mainly to prevent this from happening during the pre-flight inspection previously described.
text: This is also why we perform magneto ground checks during shutdown.
answer_details: author: aviation.stackexchange.com/users/3042/jnovo
score: 4
sents: text: As always with these questions it seems to be a religious thing.
text: If you ask 2 people you will have at least 3 different answers and most of them will sound somewhat reasonable.
text: I had the situation that my FIs always taught and asked me to move the planes (taildraggers) with me pulling the plane on the prop and them steering using the rudder.
text: A few days ago another guy walked up to me when I moved the plane shouting at me
text: "NEVER do this
text: , you'll destroy the prop"So I called the technical support of the specific airplane (Diamond Aircraft) and asked them.
text: TL;DR:
text: Manufacturer says that's exactly the way they move the planes in production when they don't have the tow bar around.
text: For reference: The plane has an electric constant speed prop
text: so I guess about the most fragile you can find in terms of prop.
text: Of course you should always grab as close to the spinner as possible One can verify plane specifically this from POH or AMM, for example Diamond DA 62
text: AMM states:
text: I know this thread is 4 years old
text: but I could not find the questions answered anywhere else
text: and the question comes up on a regular basis esp.
text: in clubs where "knowledge" is passed on from member to member.
answer_details: author: aviation.stackexchange.com/users/40505/Florian
score: 3
sents: text: How do you taxi your plane?
text: I use my engine to spin my propeller, which pulls on the hub and pulls my plane hard enough to make it roll on the ground.
text: On takeoff, I do this so hard that the 2000+ lb plane rolls 60 knots or so before it leaves the ground.
text: Now, with that in mind, do you think pulling on the prop, close to the hub, enough to move the plane 10 feet is doing any damage?
answer_details: author: aviation.stackexchange.com/users/12116/Greg Taylor
score: 1

Summary of the answers:
It seems that moving a small plane using the prop is unlikely to cause damage as long as too much force is not used.
There are two differing opinions on this. One is that the loads resulting from moving the aircraft in this way are not beneficial. The other is that this will not harm the plan, provided that the force used is not excessive.