I've had my L-1 about 14 months now approaching 300hrs flown. I'm the only one to have ever started it since I purchased it. Early on, felt it was a bit of a "fire cracker", has always required max attention to keep in the 740-800 band, but starts have always been achieved in under 30 seconds ( with a good battery ). I'm either getting used to it or since we fixed a problem with the wiring to the inlet temp sensor it feels more controllable. I've been lighting off at about 12% N1. Absolutely hate having to do a series of starts for say tail rotor balancing etc., but must say that it's always possible to modulate, it's just that on occasions it's easy to "over modulate". There was a week when it became slow to light off, but that cleared. Your power checks are good, what altitude you doing them at, I only get good results at + 3000 ft. Just fitted a new bleed valve, which I feel could be a bit sluggish in fully closing ( well I wish it had been calibrated to close sooner), it appears to close at N1 91-92%, Tq 80% (OAT 15 ) sometimes you can see the TOT coming down as it closes(normally from around 690 to 675ish). Hope my ramblings help, certainly good to hear your findings, not many people to turn to for advise on C28 in NZ.
