Hi 3top,
Thanks for the gen. I've saved your suggestions to digest slowly. I was shown a similar hot starting procedure by one more experienced pilot but it's not in the manual so the owner would not approve ! Better than a hot start though. Very interesting what you say about the battery life - I will pass this on to the owner.
I undertand that the hot start problems that have been experienced in South Africa recently also relate to the battery dropping during the start and consequently leaving the throttle stuck open - not much that a pilot can do about that. Even pulling the fuel shut off would not be fast enough.