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Does an airplane require a key to unlock the doors and start the aircraft engines?

Is it somewhat like how a car does?

Pondlife
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Super
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1 Answers1

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My 1973 Cessna Cardinal has a key to unlock the doors and another to start the engine. Just like a car.

I could use a horn to scare deer & geese off the runway.

CrossRoads
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  • I could use a horn to scare deer & geese off the runway :)

     – Super Jul 13 '18 at 14:56
  • Same for '66 Piper Cherokee, and all the other non-glider airplanes I've flown. And it's not really the deer on the runway when I want to take off that bother me, it's the ones that lurk on the side until you're halfway down, then bolt across :-) – jamesqf Jul 13 '18 at 18:22
  • 8-point buck got hit by a low wing Piper at my airport late Sunday doing that. Dented the wing lower leading edge, tore the Pitot rube from its mount. Killed the deer. – CrossRoads Jul 13 '18 at 18:36
  • On further thought, it's not "just like" a car. In a car (at least before the newer push a button ones), you turn the key to start. In the Cherokee and IIRC other planes, the key controls the magnetos, so it has 4 positions: off, left, right, and both. To start, you turn the key to "both", and press a button to engage the starter. Then when you do your runup, you switch to "left" and "right", and check for an RPM drop (and that the engine keeps running!). – jamesqf Jul 14 '18 at 05:58
  • In older Cessnas (early 70s, what I am familiar with), it is like a car. Turn full clockwise to spin the engine & engage the magnetos, release to both, then counterclockwise one position to one mag, two positions for the other mag. There is no separate start button. – CrossRoads Jul 14 '18 at 14:58
  • @CrossRoads: Yes, but there's still the 3 positions for the magnetos (and no ACC position :-)), so not "just like" a car. – jamesqf Jul 14 '18 at 17:54
  • But it's like a car in a lot of ways. – CrossRoads Jul 16 '18 at 14:06