DH89 question

[Dave Homewood]

Do the engines on the DH89 Dragon Rapide/Dominie have to be started by hand, like a Tiger Moth? ie with a groundcrew member swinging the props over on 'contact'?

I've never witnessed one being started.

Or do they have electric starters? I saw Stan Smith start his DH84 Dragon at Tauranga and it had electric starters. But I understand the DH86 had to be hand swung, as a Cambridge airman was killed doing so when he walked into a prop he'd already started whilst swinging another/

[DragonflyDH90]

The 89 has electric start, its not the nicest to hand start but it can be done. There were some Tigers fitted with electric starts also (mostly Canadian) but some people have gotten a little lazy and retrofitted them later, seen more often in the US.

Im pretty sure the Express would have been electric start, I imagine this incident may have occurred if the battery was a little flat after doing multiple starts. Even using modern batteries the start can be quite taxing, and given the poor generators fitted to most older aircraft (the propellor wind driven) if the aircraft had done multiple starts with not much in the way of flying in between, it may require a hand swing from time to time.

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Ryan. That explains it all well.

What a pity Arthur Jessop died because of drained batteries. Probably his as well as the aircraft's, he may have been tired and got complacent.

[beagle]

Was he related to Joe Jessop from our trade

[Dave Homewood]

I've no idea. I never heard of Joe Jessop.