Entering Lymington Harbour without an engine.
- Thread starter alant
- Start date
Blue Sunray
Well-Known Member
Not sure you can start a flat battery, by pushing a boat, even if a Sigma 36.
You can, provided you start at the top of a hill.
DownWest
Well-Known Member
Thort that's why they carried burly crew?
Resolution
Well-Known Member
I stand corrected! The tin cans of liquid fuel that I remember as Jetex obviously weren't. My only excuse is that this was all sixty years ago and a lot of water (?) has passed under the bridge since then.
anoccasionalyachtsman
Well-Known Member
You were spot on about the pain though. I must have been about 8 when I bench tested mine. The nail through the clip came out of the vice and the motor ricocheted around the garage, then jammed itself in a corner. Against the lawnmower petrol can. Being moderately bright I knew this wasn't good, and I can still remember the horror of realising that the garage was internal, and the house was at risk. Not that bright though, because I picked it up.
jimi
Well-Known Member
I've bump started my previous boat. Battery was flat but not completely so waited until I got a good surf going shoved it into gear and started it. Just enough in the battery to turn it over a couple of times and the help from the prop was enough to get it going.
grumpy_o_g
Well-Known Member
Absolutely, in fact I've seen a motor start simply because of the current turning the prop - ironically it was a Stuart-Turner with the usual predilection not to start when actually needed. I've also bump-started aircraft (and seen jets, turboprops and piston props bump-started on numerous occasions). I've even seen a winch (powered by a largish V8 of some kind) bump-started. Can't think of many installations of an IC engine you couldn't bump start. Tanks have been bump-started and bulldozers too apparently - never seen a helicopter bump-started though there's no reason why not if you could get someone to stay in one while it gets pushed off a the top of a mountain...
Kukri
Well-Known Member
I could bump start a Volvo MD2 with a 15x8 three blade prop by lifting the decompressors and putting it into gear. Provided we were making six knots, it would start as soon as the throttle was opened and one decompressor was dropped. You had to start it one cylinder at a time.
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BelleSerene
Well-Known Member
Me too. Though I confess hugging the line of the Eastern moorings in the deadening wind shadow of the outbound passenger ferry just upstream of the Royal Southampton building, I turned the engine on for fear of being sucked into its wake. I wouldn’t do it with the chute up!
Joker
Well-Known Member
I used to have a Jetex. I attached to a balsa model, lit the fuse, waited, and hurled the thing into the air. It fell, ignominiously, to the ground.
Seajet
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The father of a Test Pilot I knew used to make steel rockets on a lathe, powered by several rocket motors.
He decided it might be time to give up when one went up 6', then horizontal between the taxying aircraft at Boscombe Down
grumpy_o_g
Well-Known Member
The father of a Test Pilot I knew used to make steel rockets on a lathe, powered by several rocket motors.
He decided it might be time to give up when one went up 6', then horizontal between the taxying aircraft at Boscombe Down
I quite like the idea of a lathe powered by several rocket motors...
LadyInBed
Well-Known Member
I don't see how bumpstart works, as the prop normally rotates in the reverse direction when it is auto rotating due to boat going ahead. Unless you drop the engine into reverse.
awol
Well-Known Member
You need to think about it a bit more!
Greenheart
Well-Known Member
Wow, I wish I'd had a 'Jetex'. I'm not even sure what it was, but I want one. It looks like it may have been available at the same time as the kids' nuclear chemistry set.
I especially like the caption on the box - "PATENTED IN ALL IMPORTANT COUNTRIES". :biggrin-new:
I especially like the caption on the box - "PATENTED IN ALL IMPORTANT COUNTRIES". :biggrin-new:
doug748
Well-Known Member
The Jetex worked on solid fuel much like the space shuttle launchers. As the jet was about 12,000 deg centigrade, not a toy to endear itself to the Health and Safety Executive. Nowt for the feral short trousered, in the 1950's.
.
Mine only worked once, nearly cut my hand off at the wrist, and the powered glider took two weeks to repair.
Looking back, I think the fuse wires must have got damp, no double glazing or central heating at home, men were men.
This did not occur to me at the time or I would have had it in the gas oven before you could say small domestic explosion.
I feel sorry for today's kids with their crap toys.
.
Mine only worked once, nearly cut my hand off at the wrist, and the powered glider took two weeks to repair.
Looking back, I think the fuse wires must have got damp, no double glazing or central heating at home, men were men.
This did not occur to me at the time or I would have had it in the gas oven before you could say small domestic explosion.
I feel sorry for today's kids with their crap toys.
Seajet
...
I agree, I had all sorts of life endangering toys, we thought nothing of running my Mamod steam engine on white spirit with flames high around the boiler and a weight on the pesky safety valve to see what sort of revs it could really do - Dad had incendiary bullets he'd grabbed from a force landed B-17, the trick was to put these bullets in a vice then hit them with a hammer, producing a very satisfying flame for a small boy.
You just don't get that fun with a kindle.
You just don't get that fun with a kindle.
Poignard
Well-Known Member
Fingers in propellers, inhaling dope fumes, highly inflammable fuels, sharp Xacto blades ........ Lots of opportunities for seriously injuring yourself then but how rarely we did.The Jetex worked on solid fuel much like the space shuttle launchers. As the jet was about 12,000 deg centigrade, not a toy to endear itself to the Health and Safety Executive. Nowt for the feral short trousered, in the 1950's.
.
Mine only worked once, nearly cut my hand off at the wrist, and the powered glider took two weeks to repair.
Looking back, I think the fuse wires must have got damp, no double glazing or central heating at home, men were men.
This did not occur to me at the time or I would have had it in the gas oven before you could say small domestic explosion.
I feel sorry for today's kids with their crap toys.
Seajet
...
The ace Harrier Test Pilot John Farley had a bent little finger from starting a glowplug model aircraft engine - some officers thought he was taking the pee when saluted but John would never do anything like that.
https://dunsfoldairfield.org/john-farley-afc-obe/
https://dunsfoldairfield.org/john-farley-afc-obe/
Seajet
...
Ace Harrier Test Pilot John Farley had a bent little finger from starting a glowplug model aircraft engine, sometimes in his RAF times people thought he was taking the pee when he saluted, but John would never do that...