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Turning #2 first????


tinwhistle
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The book is titled "Runway Visions" and I do not have it right here in front of me so I can't give you the author, however, he was a C-130 pilot out of CCK and the book is more or less his recollections of his flying activities in and out of Vietnam. I haven't finished reading it yet, but early on he speaks of the engine start procedure and specifically mentions "turning #2 engine" first. Is that a typo? I recall ALWAYS starting #3 engine first. Any ideas out there?

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The book is titled "Runway Visions" and I do not have it right here in front of me so I can't give you the author, however, he was a C-130 pilot out of CCK and the book is more or less his recollections of his flying activities in and out of Vietnam. I haven't finished reading it yet, but early on he speaks of the engine start procedure and specifically mentions "turning #2 engine" first. Is that a typo? I recall ALWAYS starting #3 engine first. Any ideas out there?

The author is David Kirk Vaughan. The book was available on Amazon.

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I've read the book. It seems to me that things are done significantly different now than then. Perhaps his memory isn't what it was.

However, I used to fly with an engineer that liked to alternate the engine start sequence because over time the engines would have different times on them. Made sense I guess. On your typical engine start, the #3 would end up with about 10 minutes or so more run time than #1.

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We would change the rotation of the first engine to save starters... Theory was the low pressure air made the starter run longer so by rotating the first engine started you would prevent the starter from failing due to the increase run time… Also started #2 first (closest to the GTC) when it was realllly HOT or at higher field Alts.

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The book is titled "Runway Visions" and I do not have it right here in front of me so I can't give you the author, however, he was a C-130 pilot out of CCK and the book is more or less his recollections of his flying activities in and out of Vietnam. I haven't finished reading it yet, but early on he speaks of the engine start procedure and specifically mentions "turning #2 engine" first. Is that a typo? I recall ALWAYS starting #3 engine first. Any ideas out there?

I am also with Sonny and tinwhistle--In my 33 months on A's and E's, that is the only way I ever witnessed start up!!

I always thought it had something to do with powering the systems which was done by # 3.

Of course us crew-chiefs only did what we were told!!

Right guys?

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I am also with Sonny and tinwhistle--In my 33 months on A's and E's, that is the only way I ever witnessed start up!!

I always thought it had something to do with powering the systems which was done by # 3.

Of course us crew-chiefs only did what we were told!!

Right guys?

Well, we did what we were told most of the time!! My thoughts agree with Ken on this; I thought that #3 brought up all the necessary systems right away. As a side note: when I visited #877 a couple years ago I looked through some of the aircraft records and found that #1 engine had a little over 25,000 hrs on it, the other three varied greatly.

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After thinking about this for a while, #3 starter went out the most especially when we were on a trip.

We would take the starter off and install a plate and shut off the bleed air to the starter then start #4, then 1 & 2 then windmill #3 to start it.

When we got to a place that had a starter that would fit we would change it. It happened more than once.

Strange how these things pop up nearly 50 years later.

Now if I could only remember what I had for breakfast this morning. Better yet what I did with all my money yesterday.

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My thoughts. When I first started on recips years ago, I asked an old line chief about the start procedure. Which happened to be on C-131Bs with the crew door on the LH sde.

Anyway. First start the engines on the side opposite the entrance door. That was in the evert of a stack fire, etc, the passengers, crew, etc., had a safer exit to leave.

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I believe that's WHY we still start in the sequence we do: 3,4,2,1

And it's a great example of 4th generation monkey theory!

Don't know what the Fourth Generation Monkey Theory is (although I have a good idea!), but ALL of the above reasons are good reasons as to why we always started # 3 first, all valid. So, I'm guessing that the author of the above mentioned book was simply a victim of faulty memory!!!

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