Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 14, 2024 0:23:12 GMT 12
From The Press, 4 January 1968
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 5½ 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 four-cylinder 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.
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 5½ 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 four-cylinder 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.
