How do I turn on my Airplane?

Tell it it's sexy and you wanna cuddle on a beach at sunset, listening the waves, then kiss, then see where the evening leads.

(Sorry. Had to. Somebody would have anyways)

A small private aircract - like a Cessna - IS actually about the same as starting a car with ignition and a key to start it.

Larger jets, however, don't even have that - just flip a few switches and you're up, up, and away (well, it's a little more complicated than that but there's no iginition switch or key)

Here's a Cessna 172 manual: http://www.okwg.cap.gov/form/Cessna_172S_Checklist.pdf Page three or four gives the preflight and starting information.

It sounds like a lot, but it's all done quickly. It takes maybe three or four minutes to do a preflight, less than a minute to start it up. You also do a runup check at the end of the taxiway One thing I always made sure to do during a preflight was to check the fuel level visually and to be sure the moveable surfaces were all free and clear.

The funniest thing when I was just learning to fly was learning to steer with my feet when it on the ground (the pedals control both the rubber and the front wheel). I was so used to using a steering wheel to turn a car that I was using the yoke the same way. Often an instructor pilot will make a new student pilot cross his arms across his chest while he taxis to the runway.

Is the character who's starting the plane an experienced pilot? If so, you might be able to skip over the full description. A friend of mine is a pilot for small planes, and he once commented that starting up the plane seemed like a very complicated procedure when he was learning to fly, but after a while he didn't have to think about it much at all. He knew the procedure so well, so he just did it.

TheIT said:

Is the character who's starting the plane an experienced pilot? If so, you might be able to skip over the full description. A friend of mine is a pilot for small planes, and he once commented that starting up the plane seemed like a very complicated procedure when he was learning to fly, but after a while he didn't have to think about it much at all. He knew the procedure so well, so he just did it.

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That's the way it was for me. After a few times, it all becomes second nature. It's really not complicated for a small plane like a Cessna.

The worse thing on a bigger small plane is fuel tank management. There have been quite a few crashes where the plane ran out of fuel . . . but there was actually fuel in one of the other tanks. The pilot got confused and didn't switch the tanks over.