76fan - same as you, only flew it as a training aircraft. I still remember how incredibly stupid I used to feel trying to start the Mk7 on solo details on cold February mornings. Having fired cartridge after cartridge and probably only got about 5 of the 14 cylinders to fire the instructor then sauntered over from the crewroom and got all of them to catch on his first attempt. Infuriating!
Edit - re EOL's, I seem to recall (correct me if I'm wrong please, it's a long time ago) that on the Mk3 the only way you could do a practice EOL was to shut the engine off completely otherwise even with the throttle completely closed it would power up when you raised the collective. As a basic stood a Mk3 EOL was obviously only done with a QHI, never solo!
Last edited by CharlieOneSix; 21st Nov 2012 at 10:18.