Narrative:

Following a recreational flight; we taxied to the airport [fuel] pumps. The airplane was parked into the wind. The right gear was chocked front and aft; the left gear was chocked aft. (After the fact metar reflected winds gusting to 33 KTS; AWOS was monitored prior to landing; but not received. I assumed the winds were similar to takeoff; i.e. 20 degrees off runway heading gusting to 20 KTS.) following refueling; the airplane was prepped for a solo hand-prop start. This time; chocking configuration was as follows: left gear choked front and aft; right gear chocked front. I pulled on the prop hub to ensure the airplane was suitably restrained. Airplane was configured for a hot start: throttle 1/4-inch open; mags on 'both.' two swings of the prop and nothing. Reset the mags to 'off;' gave it two hits of throttle; and a two blade pull-through. Reset the mags to 'both.' it caught on the second throw. At this point; the airplane began a slow pivot to the right. I ran around the right wing strut and grabbed it while reaching inside to bring the throttle back to idle. The tail was rising and resulted in a prop strike and subsequent engine stoppage. The left wing developed lift and the airplane began a roll to the right. The airplane came to rest upside down on the ramp.the cause of this incident is not having the airplane securely restrained prior to engine start. Supporting this cause was ignorance of current surface wind conditions.recommendations: 1) do not fly when winds (to include gusts) exceed 20 KTS;2) always; always; always secure the tail when hand-propping solo;3) minimize ground operations when experiencing high winds.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Aeronca pilot describes a hand prop start that goes awry; resulting in the aircraft upside down at the fuel pumps.

Narrative: Following a recreational flight; we taxied to the airport [fuel] pumps. The airplane was parked into the wind. The right gear was chocked front and aft; the left gear was chocked aft. (After the fact METAR reflected winds gusting to 33 KTS; AWOS was monitored prior to landing; but not received. I assumed the winds were similar to takeoff; i.e. 20 degrees off runway heading gusting to 20 KTS.) Following refueling; the airplane was prepped for a solo hand-prop start. This time; chocking configuration was as follows: Left gear choked front and aft; right gear chocked front. I pulled on the prop hub to ensure the airplane was suitably restrained. Airplane was configured for a hot start: throttle 1/4-inch open; mags on 'BOTH.' Two swings of the prop and nothing. Reset the mags to 'OFF;' gave it two hits of throttle; and a two blade pull-through. Reset the mags to 'BOTH.' It caught on the second throw. At this point; the airplane began a slow pivot to the right. I ran around the right wing strut and grabbed it while reaching inside to bring the throttle back to idle. The tail was rising and resulted in a prop strike and subsequent engine stoppage. The left wing developed lift and the airplane began a roll to the right. The airplane came to rest upside down on the ramp.The cause of this incident is not having the airplane securely restrained prior to engine start. Supporting this cause was ignorance of current surface wind conditions.Recommendations: 1) Do not fly when winds (to include gusts) exceed 20 KTS;2) Always; always; ALWAYS secure the tail when hand-propping solo;3) Minimize ground operations when experiencing high winds.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.