Engine start sound(or shutdown) that brings back the most memories
 

I didnt say that it was necessarily good memories.

Definitely the L1011 Tristar on start up for me :ok:

My first choice : Dakota : dc3wav


VC10 :


Viscount/Vanguard :

Sea Harrier engine shutdown has got to be the best. I remember hearing it at Yeovilton for the last time:{

The Airspeed Ambassador. All that smoke.:}

This is what I did before joining the airline. Lots of fun in a Cessna with 430 horsepower :ok:

The 'putta putta putta...' of the mighty VW bursting into life in the Fournier RF-4 after being swung by the pilot. That sound will forever remind me of my childhood!

'866

How about this. You hear the light off at 12 seconds.


For shutting down, I liked this sound. For those impatient, listen at 1:28 for the downshift to low-speed and the to 3:00 for the familiar sound of Allisons winding down.

Nothing like a good old cartridge starter. A ruddy great BANG followed by the engine belching into life amid clouds of smoke from an overprimed engine. Cartridge and Avpin started Avons were a close second but the these electric starters have no atmosphere at all.

Yak 52:

I call “clear prop”, while holding my right arm vertical and rotating my extended forefinger in the air for a couple of seconds as a visual signal for those out of earshot – if a Yak is starting up anywhere near you, you need to know about it before it happens. I hold the stick back in the crook of my right arm (old taildragger habits die hard) with my forefinger on the start button to the left of the panel, having flicked up its cover. My left hand rests on the one-third-open throttle lever. A glance round to check all is clear, and I press the button. There’s a loud ‘pop’ followed by an asthmatic wheezing as compressed air is admitted to the cylinders via a pneumatic distributor to turn the engine. The prop jerks slowly round a revolution and I flick the mags to ‘1 + 2’ (you really need three hands for this) and one cylinder fires. I release the start button and pump the throttle to keep the prop turning. More cylinders join in with a sudden roar, and clouds of smoke stream from the exhausts. The prop dissolves into an invisible disc, blowing the smoke instantly backwards – but it’s not sustained and the engine dies, clattering round slower and slower, the prop becoming visible once more. I pump the throttle again, my right hand going to the primer. But before I can decide whether to prime or not, several cylinders fire up raggedly accompanied by more grey smoke which is blasted under the wing by the propwash. The engine dies again, the prop slowing, but only for a second or so. With a glorious throaty roar all the cylinders report for duty, and this time as though they mean it. The engine clears its throat with a cough or two, becomes self-sustaining, and settles into smooth regular song. The battle is won and I snap the starter button cover down.

A friend described a Yak start up as ‘biblical’ – lots of noise, lots of smoke, the ground shaking, and the smiting of lesser objects. This latter point is one to watch; anything much more than idle power can blow over a light aircraft in the propwash.

LOVE those bendy props on the 748. (Yes, I know it's all to do with frame rates, but it does look good)

Hawker Hunter AVPIN start....better still a whole squadron of Hunters starting up at once, and then taxying out together.

The most exciting sound I've ever heard, closely followed by a VC10 taxying, as above.

The Viscount and BAC 1-11 engine start were also very distinctive.

Best start up - Hunter 200-ser Avon Avpin sequence.
Best run-up - F-104 J-79 a/b check.
Best take-off - Vulcan with 200-ser Olympussies at full power.
Best shut down - C-130 when you've just spent hours travelling in the bowels of the freight bay....:mad:

Gatwick early 1980s on a balmy summer night, whilst working nights at BCAL.

0100 ish. APU of Dan-Air BAC 1-11 starts. A few minutes later the distinctive sound of a Plessy CSDS starting engine 2 shortly followed by engine 1.
Aircraft takes off on 26 and turns left for Seaford. Massive amount of noise wakes up half of West Sussex. After about 5 minutes calm descends again.

0200 ish. Same story again, but Laker this time.

0300 ish. Same...............................

I think the one remaining airworthy 1-11 in the UK should be retained to remind people how noisy things used to be!

dixi188
 

Aaah, the lovely Plessey CSDS indeed.

Lucky were those of us who travelled "private" so the crew were not shy of coming along the cabin and down the ventral stairs iron bar in hand.

They sure knew where to wallop it and once freed up we were on our way.

The "tick, tick, tick" of the mighty Nimbus starting a Scout...

Belvederes also used Avpin

Sequence frequently sounded like this:

Crack (of the Avpin) - engine catches fire.

Ouch (pilots twisting ankles as they jump out of aircraft)

Nee nah nee nah as fire vehicles arrive.

The R-3350's on the Super Constellation for me.

G'day ;)

"Bang"...followed by a deeeep moan, slooowly rising in cresendo to a bass hum. Javelin start 0Dark 30 Borneo 1965.

VC10 take off [I was in the Runway Caravan 10-15 metres from the point of rotation...:D

Meteor F8 [TT version] flyby at Changi 1064

Lightning display at Binbrook...from the Tower balcony

The whistle from a Sedberg after a wingover....
I could go on...and on.....

Then you will like this. It was a slow start, maybe hung after sitting for a long time. But turn up the volume if you like this with blades clicking, and the simultaneous high pitch and eventually low pitch sounds along with piles of smoke.

But the smoke did not stop AFTER startup!

This is a memory that will stay with me forever, eclipsing all others to do with aircraft. It was the first time I got to start the Griffons on a Shackleton.

Watching the blades go round, hearing the first coughs, a couple of loud pops out the exhaust, then it breaks into that noise...

Hunter avpin starts always scarred the bejesus out of me - Occasionally whee..phut; pat pat pat; Thump (groundcrew putting out flames with the asbestos glove then clouting the HF ignitor box) ; Weeee.....phut..... pat pat pat, thump thump thump: Wheee......BANG! clink clink clink (intake panels shooting forward & rivets flying everywhere mostly straight towards the hapless groundcrew as the starter explodes!)
:\

start ups
 

Same two above ,although 963 has those namby pamby exhausts and not the old "fishtails"!What a noise as the engines were run up for mag drops etc!!!Hunter Avpin starts,never had one explode on me but often had a lung full of fumes!How about the Hercules,lots of smoke there also!!!My hearing has never been the same since and for those who may be in the same industry a commercial gas turbine as used in power stations can also make a lot of noise!!!

That's the one!

Hunter Avpin starters.

I was at a Chivenor airshow about 1972. There was a lull in the flying so I was walking near a line of 40 Hunters that had some activity around them. Suddenly all 40 started at the same time. I nearly fouled my breeches with the noise.
They did some aerobatics in "229" (OCU) formation using 36 aircraft.
I think it was the same year that 229 OCU did the same thing at Farnborough in "E II R" formation.

The One-Eleven is my fav. powering up. I also loved the way they sounded as they flew over my home in Windsor lining up on 10 left :ok:

A B-25 starting up for me (que first scene of Catch-22...), the whine of the inertia starter, when meshed it starts out as a bucket of bolts being kicked, then a few cylinders catch on and slowly the rest decides to join the posse.

Having stood within yards of those exhausts to get chocks and external power clear it is a wonder I still pass the hearing tests :}

Surprised nobody's mentioned it so far - has to be the Bell JetRanger for start up. That initial starter whine increasing in frequency, then the hint of power whoosh as the turbine lights off when the fuel goes in, somewhere around 15% N1 if memory serves......... so evocative, best savoured with headset off and door open, at least up to ground idle.

Two for me. Any Gipsy or Cirrus Major reminds me of my first days of watching Austers back in the mid 60s. Likewise the sound of a RR Gnome in a Bristow's Whirlwind 3 on floats....

After crewing on a Connie I can tell you the sweetest sound in the world was when you when you had managed to get all four engines started.

However after being on the beast for hours the sweetest sound, "on the Ground" was when they stopped.

Multiple Merlins on a cold Lincolnshire night?

And then there's how they used to do it :ok:

Thanks TTN, you owe me a new keyboard. The cold beverage came out my nose. :D:D:D

Click on audio in the menu on the left.

Can't beat the primeval roar of a Vulcan on heat. It's after the American thingy.

Possibly the most distinctive start-up sound is that of a 1-11 hung start. Is there no record of it anywhere?

Just has to be this sound from my days at Stansted with ATL in the sixties

dc4 carvair Video by allen - Myspace Video

Great video oldshuck. They don't make them like that anymore - THANK GOD.

I don't think you mean a hung start ZeBedie - there wasn't anything remarkable about that, rather the quill drive shearing, an extremely high pitched scream as the something rotated at many thousand rpm! Only had a couple in 6k hours on the machine, but it certainly got everyone's attention.