Looks like the engine has stalled, and he's gonna try to propstart it.
Hope he calls "Clear!"
That is the passenger, the pilot sits in the back in a J3. If that were the pilot, the CG would be WAY out of the forward envelope.
There's a great scene (one of many) in a movie called "Never Cry Wolf" where bush pilot (Brian Dennehey) crawls outside the plane and beats on the engine cowling to restart the engine when it crapped out over the wilds of Alaska. Stunning scenery and great acting by all involved and a good one for the family. Anybody recognize the make of the plane? It looked cool.
[sidebar #1] A lot of those pictures just look like human ingenuity at work - we tend to think these are suicidal procedures but forget that we are used to all the techiniacl goodies of a First World nation.
[sidebar #2] My next door neighbor was working on his car, using a scissors jack. Gets the car up and crawls underneath - and the the jack proceeds to sink into the ground and pins him under the car. I kept hearing a muffled "Martha!" and finally woke up that it was coming from next door. I got a bottle jack and placed it on a square of plywood so it wouldn't sink in and got the car back up. He came out from under it in a shot with his eyes as big as saucers. Not really dumb - just didn't realize his jack had such a narrow base and that it has rained the day before.