I’ve seen this many times over the decades, and still not clear what’s happening.
Another example was at Aero on Saturday, waiting by my aircraft for my slot for about an hour in my little camping chair, I saw lots of aircraft starting up.
I saw about 50% of the aircraft start up, and then ran their engine at about 1200 RPM or higher, for about 15-20 minutes before taxiing.
Anyone know what they are doing? Are there aircraft out there that need to be run for such a long time at this RPM? It was a warm day (about 20c) so I guess their engines were warm after about 5 minutes maximum.
My favorite was the guy with the PA-46 who was 4 meters behind me blasting me with propwash for 20 mins while I scrambled to get my aircraft tied down and the control locks installed just after I landed.
Setting up the instruments for the IFR departure 🙄
This could also be called „poor airmanship“
Startphobia? People afraid engine will not start (as compared to a car engine) so they scramble prime/pump/throttle, say a prayer and once it roars to life they are afraid it will die due to low rpm?!
A generalization but it seems the average PPL in Europe has very little idea what’s going on on the other side of the firewall (injected vs carbureted, turbo vs na, rotax vs us lyco, etc.). I was like that too fresh out of flightschool before I started reading and learning about the topic myself.
Rotax owners will generally not do that. Maintenance needed every 100 hrs – 50 when using AVGAS – from engine start-up to engine shut-down. 
Snoopy wrote:
A generalization but it seems the average PPL in Europe has very little idea what’s going on on the other side of the firewall (injected vs carbureted, turbo vs na, rotax vs us lyco, etc.). I was like that too fresh out of flightschool before I started reading and learning about the topic myself.
I thinks this is a correct statement, and agree to this. Not that much better understanding myself! ;-)
In countries where schools bill for brakes-off to brakes-on, most excessive ground running is due to renters trying to minimise billing. So they do absolutely everything they can before moving off, and then with the oil warm enough they taxi fast to the runway holding point.
At Aero EDNY it is more complicated because you can spend ages waiting for them to get back to you, so the battery gets drained. My normal startup to takeoff time is under 10 mins (at EGKA) but at EDNY last week it was more like 20 mins. But there was nobody behind me. I recall 45 minute engine runs at the runway holding point at EDNY, say 10 years ago.
I would not expect a PA46 pilot to be a renter and paying on the above basis, but it is possible and I have known of such here in the UK. Years ago a shagged-out PA46 was rented out at EGMD for some £200/hr wet and that was billed brakes-off to brakes-on.
Otherwise, yes, there is a lot of inconsiderate behaviour e.g. people doing this at the pumps at EGKA. Before the FTO went bust it was a really common problem.
eurogaguest1980 wrote:
I saw about 50% of the aircraft start up, and then ran their engine at about 1200 RPM or higher, for about 15-20 minutes before taxiing.Anyone know what they are doing? Are there aircraft out there that need to be run for such a long time at this RPM?
It is a matter of bad training. Believe it or not, quite some of the flights schools in Germany indeed train high rpm run-ups even ab initio. Yes, it is stupid and I was talking to these <…> many times, but couldn’t get them to change.
option 1: time building : you just need to move forward a bit then stop again
option 2: due to bad experience they are freaked out of battery drain while entering the waypoints to their GNS430
robirdus wrote:
while entering the waypoints to their GNS430
I do wonder why people do this. Surely you can just enter the first few on the ground and then enter the rest once on your way.
On the PPL scene one does see engines started up and then run (often at an excessively high rpm) for quite some time before anything happens. One can only assume it is people who are generally slow, faffing about, unprepared, etc. Obviously it happens with students because they are working their way carefully through long checklists, and perhaps the same with quite newly-qualified PPLs.
We were all like that once, but I quickly found that if you were prepared and logical about things then there was no need for it. I have the opposite problem – there is not enough to do to fill the minimum engine warm up time so I find myself just sitting there waiting – even if I do after start a number of things that could be done before start.
In the RV it goes something like this:
Start engine, settle it down to 1000rpm, mixture leaned out, alternator on, avionics on, retract flaps.
Hit ‘go fly’ and then ‘log engine start’ in SkyDemon, enter the route (if there is one).
Fasten harness.
Plug in and put on headset.
Close canopy.
Set QNH.
Set next likely radio frequency.
This all takes a minute or two and at this point I’m ready to taxi. There’s essentially nothing more I can do before moving. I tend to taxi to where I’ll do my power checks straight away because that can be done without any additional power – the coarse prop means it taxis easily at 1000rpm even on grass – and because it isn’t very far at all. I’m then usually waiting another few minutes for a semi-respectable oil temperature before performing the power checks.
I do wonder what people are actually doing when they sit there for all that time. It seems logical to me that the more you do something the more efficient you become at doing it, but perhaps not always.
I believe starting up and remaining on the pumps is incredibly bad manners. One should occupy the space for the shortest time possible, which includes vacating immediately once fuelling is complete. If you have pre-flight faffing to do, move off the pumps first and then do it.
