chrizzz

deleted

Update on the PA125 (conventional) starter issue: I figured out the recoil spring of the starter was somehow unwound by one turn (whenever and however that happend). It's not likely to be a fatigued spring, rather the roundend "inner end" of the spring has somehow slipped over the little "hook" of the pulley (see attached image). This resulted in too little tension to keep the starter cord pulled in during flight (but still enough to keep the starter cord in place at low revs) . Strikingly, the tension of the starter cord also was not greatly decreased by this missing turn (so tricky to notice on the ground!!). I wound the spring up for one turn and tension increased. When I pull out the cord to maximum length (limited by the spring totally wound up) there is a little bit cord left on the roll (3/4 of one turn). I hope it will not slip again. I also secured the starter handle now, but of course the cord is hard to secure... chrizzz

Hi, I'm happily flying a PAP PA125 since 80 hours and unfortunately last weekend the 'cord into prop' problem has caught me, too. What's maybe worth noting: the PA125 doesn't have the flash starter, it comes with a regular starter (with all it's kick-back beauty...). I think I will have to take the recoil starter apart to see what's really going on but for sure the starter rope is slowly unwinding at high RPM. Recoil spring tension seems normal (but I have no comparison). My personal theory is that the cooling fan will "transmit" some rotation to the starter pulley (both right next to each other, unwinding the rope) at high RPM, recoil spring not strong enough (anymore) to hold it in place (can a spring wear out after 80 hours?). Anyone else had this issue on the PA125 or similar engines with regular starter? Is there a fix or do I have to replace the starter? Thanks a lot!