Narrative:

I planned to reposition my 85-hp piper cub from its t-hangar at the south end of [the] airport to [another hangar] on the airport. I had installed a tie-down ring sunk in a concrete pad outside the t-hangar. After pre-flighting the cub; I secured the tail using a heavy duty nylon rope and 2 carabiners (one attached to the tie-down ring; the other to the tailwheel assembly). I primed the engine; pulled the prop through several times; cracked the throttle and turned the magneto switch to 'both.' there was no one at the controls. The engine caught on the first pull and the cub surged forward; the tail attach point failed and the carabiner and rope were torn loose. I ran back and grabbed the right wing strut; trying to reach the throttle; but the airplane pulled me forward out onto a large hard-surface ramp. I hung on; trying to reach the throttle. My weight on the strut caused the tailwheel to caster and the airplane rotated clockwise with me hanging on; trying to reach the throttle. As it picked up speed in the rotation I was losing my grip and; after several 360's; when I thought it was 'aimed' in a direction that would cause the least damage; I had to let go. By now I was being dragged over the asphalt on my heels (my shoes had come off) and my 'butt.' the airplane impacted the edge of a t-hangar and a cessna 150 tied down in the grass next to the hangar. There was damage to the right wingtip of the cessna and considerable damage to the cub - left wing; fuselage; propeller and sudden engine stoppage.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: J-3 Cub pilot reported the aircraft was damaged after breaking loose from its tie-downs following an empty-cockpit hand-prop start.

Narrative: I planned to reposition my 85-hp Piper Cub from its t-hangar at the south end of [the] airport to [another hangar] on the airport. I had installed a tie-down ring sunk in a concrete pad outside the t-hangar. After pre-flighting the Cub; I secured the tail using a heavy duty nylon rope and 2 carabiners (one attached to the tie-down ring; the other to the tailwheel assembly). I primed the engine; pulled the prop through several times; cracked the throttle and turned the magneto switch to 'both.' There was no one at the controls. The engine caught on the first pull and the Cub surged forward; the tail attach point failed and the carabiner and rope were torn loose. I ran back and grabbed the right wing strut; trying to reach the throttle; but the airplane pulled me forward out onto a large hard-surface ramp. I hung on; trying to reach the throttle. My weight on the strut caused the tailwheel to caster and the airplane rotated clockwise with me hanging on; trying to reach the throttle. As it picked up speed in the rotation I was losing my grip and; after several 360's; when I thought it was 'aimed' in a direction that would cause the least damage; I had to let go. By now I was being dragged over the asphalt on my heels (my shoes had come off) and my 'butt.' The airplane impacted the edge of a t-hangar and a Cessna 150 tied down in the grass next to the hangar. There was damage to the right wingtip of the Cessna and considerable damage to the Cub - left wing; fuselage; propeller and sudden engine stoppage.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.