Many pilots experience anxiety or nervousness before starting a turbine engine. We've heard so many stories about how easy it is to torch one. So we barely squeak the "throttle" open, just enough to get a light-off, watching the TOT gauge intently, only to have the engine flame-out when our death-grip on the FC lever ("throttle") relaxes for a moment.
So unnecessary...in the RR A250 C-20 series that is.
Gomer Pylot wrote:
To start a B model, I rolled directly to idle, then pressed the idle release with my thumb, trying not to move the throttle. Having the throttle a little above the stop shouldn't be a big problem.
It isn't. In fact, no matter how far you open the throttle, the fuel control can *only* deliver start fuel. Whatever you get at "cracked" is what you're going to get at "Full." So go right to "full" if you want! It won't be any hotter. But just be sure to roll it back to "Idle" before the N1 gets up to 60% or that baby is really going to take off!
That "trick" won't work in a C-28 or C-30, or any other engine with a modulated start.
The scariest thing for me during a turbine transition is when the student hears the light-off and releases the starter button as he would with a piston engine.
Oh nooooooooo! One guy did it to me after he'd made nearly a dozen starts. Complacency, man, I'll tell ya it's a killer.