Hey goaround 7,
one more thing about the battery:
a) It is also NOT in the manual, nevertheless the EC guys from Mexico told us at one of their visits, that is recommended to leave the gen on at all times, even at and/or after shut down! Punch off the BAT but leave the GEN on. Supposedly it has something to do with battery drain through some of the electronics.
b) If you stay overnight or wait all day long for your pax, disconnect the battery. Take off either of the terminals, I normally take off the positive.
c) If you play around in the cockpit without actually starting the ship, use a APU to power the radios and GPS, you won't believe how fast these things suck down the battery. Then you show 22V instead of 25.8V for the start. Botch it a little and your done - it shuts off below 15V
to the "non authorized" Starting Procedure:
As mentioned in my previous post, this procedure WAS in the POH at some time.
Actually it started out without it, then they put this in (Sept.'99), and then they took it out again.
In October 2001 it was still there. Also that you would activate the starter before rolling into the start position. Now you place the throttle in the start position before activating the starter....
My guess is, that some people overdid it with the Ng, and tried to light off at 17% or higher. Most likely you don't start at all. So what you have now is a puddle of fuel somewhere in the turbine.
At the next start up you may or not get a nice long flame shooting out the pipe!
However as you observed, you have a hard time cranking the thing down and still start without a T4 running redline. Besides, this also eats a lot more battery.
In any case run the fuel pump first, it doesn't matter how long it runs - when it is on 18-20 sec, do your cooling crank, and as soon as Ng is low enough for T4 to rise again, go ahead and start.
It is easier to do the "Ng 10% at cut off" thing though.
To EC generally and their frequent changes of procedures:
Just went head on with my boss for going exactly with the manual for Nr adjustment. He claimed the Factory instructions are wrong. I argued, he did the adjustment according to the manual, and guess what, he was right! They wrote it the other way around!
Moral: Your POH is like the bible, mostly it is okay, but some stories I know for a fact are not true!!
This morning I put some new leaves in the Flight Manual (POH), Revision 8a, I think: Section 8 where it explains the button functions of the cyclic and collective:
The new yellow(temporary) leave says "floats" on the floats switch and it says "floats" on the hydraulic off switch, too!
So much for a detailed review BEFORE sending revisions into the field.
I believe the Hot starting procedure is along the same line.
Let's do - ahh better not - or maybe we should after all?
Ask EC WHY they removed the "10% Ng at off position" again?
I would like to know too! Meanwhile I keep using it to keep T4 in check!
note: When I asked the Ec-techs visiting, they couldn't say for what reason the procedure was changed back...
Actually because of this post I observed a couple of temps this morning a little closer:
Cold start: If you don't help T4 after it starts to rise faster after 300°C it will get stuck around 635°C and Ng acceleration will go to near zero.
Repeated 3 hot starts with "my" procedure, hottest with 265°C rest T4. Roll to start after reaching 10% Ng and roll back a little after lightoff. T4 will settle at 740°C everytime before sinking when you help a little to maintain this until Ng reaches 50%.
Ask your owner, whether he prefers a "nearly burned one" every chance or a rather safe "cool" start!
You can perfectly combine both:
Normally if I know I have to start up in short order, I will crank right away after I note down the flight report. This way you took out a lot of heat right away. You still can crank again before starting, while you have the pump on. Just give it a little Ng before rolling into the START position...
3top
goaround 7,
if it helps I can scan the old revision pages that outline the procedure, maybe that helps discussing things with your boss and/or EC. In case your bird is new enough and the Flight Manual never received these changes!
Let me know!
If you want them I need your e-mail.
3top