Training and Safety Tip: Use your 'clear prop' voice
Belt it out for safety
The proper procedure for starting an airplane has three steps.
First, flip on the aircraft beacon as a visual warning to pilots, passengers, and line people on the apron that you are about to start the engine.
Second, visually clear the area around your aircraft—and not just ahead over the nose. Are there any children running from the FBO toward their family’s airplane? Are there any new students walking back from a flight with their noses buried in their phones?
Third, right before engaging the starter, activate your audio alerting system. That’s when you literally shout out a final warning through an open cockpit side window or door. And I don’t mean some mousy little “clear” in a polite indoor voice. I want you to raise the roof, and don’t be shy about it. Put a drill sergeant to shame by shouting out, “Clear prop!” If your CFI is wearing a headset and winces, you’ve almost got it right.
This final step is critical. We tend to think that anyone on the ramp knows the truth about airplanes (for example, unlike a horse, an airplane won’t kick you if you walk behind it; any airplane with people inside has a 50 percent chance of starting; and spinning props are nearly invisible). The truth is that the majority of propeller strike injuries are to passengers, and there’s a good chance passengers don’t know why an airplane’s beacon is on, or when an airplane might start, or which side of an airplane is its safe side. But a good shout-out gets anyone’s attention.
One way to remember this engine start safety ritual is what I call the three Bs—beacon, behold, and bellow.
These simple actions greatly reduced propeller strike injuries when they were first introduced in the mid-1970s, when two blade-to-person injuries per month were the norm. Although not as widespread today, you still don’t have to look far online to find dozens of stories about prop injuries, and they remain common enough that—kid you not—one New York law firm that specializes in aviation accidents dedicates an entire portion of its website to the subject: “If you or a loved one has been injured in an airplane propeller accident…”
So, at every start, break out the three B’s—beacon, behold, and bellow. And bellow as if someone’s life depends on it. Because it does.
