Chieftan Engine Start
In cold weather it seems the mighty Chieftan is a tad hard to start. My boss thinks that if the engine has to be started twice or if it coughs the passengers will lose confidence in the pilot. He has a point but I have seen even the most experienced pilots have trouble occasionally.
The book says six seconds of prime with throttle half inch and that used to work for me, but at this company the Maint Mgr wants 3 seconds with the throttle full open.
Seems the same to me but what do I know.
If it works it works great but if it does not start on first rotation you just know it is going to try its best to make you look a fool, and I don't need help to prove that.
If the temps are below freezing it is easy to over prime but if not enough prime it fires but will not run. A fine balance that is hard to achieve knowing the boss is looking down from his window. If you don't get her running within a few minutes of pulling the airplane out of the hangar you might not get her running at all.
The hangar is not too warm and I think that is part of the problem. the airplanes do not have engine heaters.
Some days the temps are -15 or -20C and the minimum allowed is -35C. In those conditions in the field we use engine covers during turn around, which work great. I will start her up every two hours or so to keep everything warm. A warm engine is not a problem. Always starts immediately then.
I thought I had it skun the other day but after the three seconds I forgot to pull the throttle back to idle before starting and when it started it got rich real quick, with a little backfire before I could get it evened out. Most embarrassing.
The only thing that saved me from a roasting was that another pilot could not get his engine started at all so they concentrated on him, but I know they will not forget me next time. No sense of humour at all.
But if anyone has tips or tricks that work, please pass them on.