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Does anybody know what is the most effective way of hand propping a Cessna 172N, with a passenger who is not mechanically inclined.

So you need to give them the most easy to follow and simple instructions. Like after pulling the hand brake, and priming and opening the throttle 1/4 inch what do you tell them to do?

I would push the throttle gently in after I'd hear the engine coughing to power when hand propped, while keeping my feet on the brakes, till engine's smooth revving and maintaining power.

But to a person that has no familiarity with the noise of the engine and does not know what to expect, what should I say.

Edit I thought I should elaborate a bit to shed some light on what happened.

We had come back from a half a day of hiking around the hills of Santa Ynez in the afternoon with my hiker friend. After trying to crank the ignition a couple of times, it just moaned jerking half way through a hesitant arc.

We looked around for something to use as chocks, found two rocks like 8-10inched and kind of heavy and pushed them to a locking position in front of the tires.

I set the throttle; told him not to touch it before I jump back after cranking and wave him all clear. Then he pushes the throttle by half an inch while pushing the breaks. We brought the engine back to life after a few tries.

After I felt we have a enough of prop rotation inertia I got on to the right seat and brought the RPM down. He got out and removed the rocks. Got back in and we flew back to Van Nuys.