Under any circumstance I think an FAA inspector would be able to win a case against the person for "careless and reckless". People hand prop their planes, yes, and I think many tie them down or chock them, at least have some kind of procedure. It is a necessity. They are for the most part less than 100 HP airplanes also.
I started mine up the other day and reached for my headset. It was locked in the bag compartment. So I did the right thing, pulled the mixture, took the key got my bag. In front of 5 witnesses a couple of them ATP's and jet pilots. All laughing inside I suppose. If I forgot to tie it down, Run it for a few mins to charge the batery, and then kill it to remove the chocks. Or drive over them. (Cant do that in a Cirrus) Shutting down an engine for a couple minutes its super easy to start back up.
Quote: sleepingsquirrel
If you had not been witness to this event,would it still have happened? Would the outcome have been the same? Is one occurrence worthy of having to always be perfect, or.......run the risk of having this person trying to correct your mistake or poor judgement? (usually this does not work well except between instructor and student) On a crowded ramp with children and invalids this might deserve a discussion with the pilot. Otherwise he will just point out that people hand prop their planes all the time and have no one in the cockpit. Many great airshow acts are based on this premise.
Just think to yourself "I would NEVER do that"
(Even after a particularly difficult hot start with an already low battery, and the airplane will not move because the low battery distracted you and you forgot to remove the chocks from the MAIN gear which you vividly remember putting there now that the balky airplane will not move)