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Can't cold start the Cat!

J

jimjones

SOH-CM-2023
I give up trying to start the Catalina from a cold start. I've been thru the videos and Aerosoft's posted procedures.

One bug I see in the procedure is the setting of the fuel selector for the right engine. If the throttle is not set open to over 5% before setting the fuel selector, the tool tip will indicate that the fuel selector is the throttle control. A large area around the right fuel selector shows this too. Once the throttle is set over 5% the tool tip shows the correct info over the fuel selector. This problem does not happen on the left side.

I've been thru the start up procedure over 20 times. Out of these attempts the engine almost started twice, but stopped soon after the engine revved up even while leaving the primer on. All other times there was a whump whump sound and an occasional very short higher pitch sound as if the engine was going to kick in, but does not. Inside the cockpit this grinding away of the starter will continue indefinitely (unless I stop it) or until I change to an external view when the engine will soon stop turning over on its own and the clouds of smoke ceases to pour from the engine.

I've been trying to contact Aerosoft via their forums. Registered this morn and a verification email was to be sent. Never received one after 12 hrs (should be very quick). Requested 2 more verification emails. None received. Contacted forum mgr via email, no response. I appear as a member but have no privileges to post.

Guess those Aerosoft folks are really busy.

What are your cold start experiences?
 
Jim,

I convinced those 60 year old engines are a bit temperamental.

I can get them started but sometimes it takes some doing. In general, I kinda follow the checklist. From cold, turn on everything on the back wall - master, generators, the APU (even if it doesn't do anything excpet sound like my lawn mower :icon_lol:), at least the beacon. On the back wall, on both sides of the mixture levers, are the fuel selectors. You can't see the right one from the seat - use the pop-up (A three or four times - but it sounds like you've found them). Set both mixtures to full rich. Then, turn around. I violate the check list a bit but it works - set both mag switches to "Both" - be careful there, they both rotate clockwise. The left one points left in the both position, the right one is down. Press the plunger between them. Be sure the cowl flaps are open. I'm not convinced the fuel pumps are needed. Then pick an engine, any engine but stay on one at a time. Its easy to get confused what's up and what's down. Hit the Starter, wait for a few seconds (count pulses on the tach to about 10), crack the throttles and prime - hold it on till it catches. Sometimes it takes three or four attempts before both settle down. Tach should be someplace between 1000 and 1500. Any faster and it will start moving, especially on water.

That should do it. Hope it helps.

Glenn
 
One thing to be careful of - don't hit the "Dump" switch next to the left fuel selector - it will do exactly that and the Cat will be leaving a big puddle whether you and see it or not. Been there, done that.

Glenn
 
jimjones said:
I give up trying to start the Catalina from a cold start. I've been thru the videos and Aerosoft's posted procedures.

One bug I see in the procedure is the setting of the fuel selector for the right engine. If the throttle is not set open to over 5% before setting the fuel selector, the tool tip will indicate that the fuel selector is the throttle control. A large area around the right fuel selector shows this too. Once the throttle is set over 5% the tool tip shows the correct info over the fuel selector. This problem does not happen on the left side.

I've been thru the start up procedure over 20 times. Out of these attempts the engine almost started twice, but stopped soon after the engine revved up even while leaving the primer on. All other times there was a whump whump sound and an occasional very short higher pitch sound as if the engine was going to kick in, but does not. Inside the cockpit this grinding away of the starter will continue indefinitely (unless I stop it) or until I change to an external view when the engine will soon stop turning over on its own and the clouds of smoke ceases to pour from the engine.

I've been trying to contact Aerosoft via their forums. Registered this morn and a verification email was to be sent. Never received one after 12 hrs (should be very quick). Requested 2 more verification emails. None received. Contacted forum mgr via email, no response. I appear as a member but have no privileges to post.

Guess those Aerosoft folks are really busy.

What are your cold start experiences?
Click to expand...

I have the same issue. Followed the tutorial on Youtude while I was in the aircraft and it just plain did not work. I hit Ctrl-E and it started right up and none of the switches even moved so I know I was doing it right. I have no idea what to do now. lol
 
Odd - so long as i have fuel and everything is in the right position I start up with no problem.

Have you tested it in both realistic and normal engine modes?
 
She is sometimes hard to start under iceing conditions, that means visibility 10 miles or less. Due to the loss of temperature of the air moving through the carburator at high speeds, it can happen if the OAT is way above dewpoint.

What I did, was using a lot of throttle as the engine ignites. Than, it usually started, and I could take the throttle back a fair amount. To keep it running apply carb heat around 30° during warm up. Make sure you take it back to cold before take off.

Hope this works for you.
 
Glenn, I pretty much used your procedure of counting 10 tach pulses, etc. The engine seems to catch momentarily, about a second, then stops. After that intitial failure I cannot get that sound again no matter how often I try restarting the engines.

Ark, yes I have the same experience with CTRL-E. I use the realistic option and cold start. After failure I hit CTRL-E. The engines struggle to start and the tachs pulsate for a minute or so then the engines start, but not at the same time. The temperature gauges above the fuel and oil gauges eventually warm up to about 50 deg C. If I shut down by pulling out the ignition switch, I can then go thru the sequence of starting the engines manually and get them to start, but there is still a struggle, especially if those temp gauges go much below 50.

I don't get some of the sounds I should. I've seen the fix for the ASC on Aerosofts Forums but have yet to install them.

Mr Mugel, I will test your suggestion of carb heat. My OAT was a Spring 57 deg F, pretty warm, but I'll try Summer to see if that helps.
 
Just for the start...

Select a situation with default "fair" weather theme.

You will get almost clear sky and 15°C ambient temperature.

Learn to start the engines under these conditions first.

Also remember to prime the engine. Prime just before moving the magnetos from Off to Both.
Advance the throttles after start to get RPM a bit up.
Then prime a few times further to keep the engine running until oil temp reaches appr. 30°C.

A good advise is to get one engine up running smooth before starting up the next.

Finn
 
Thanks Finn for that advice. What follows is a message I composed just before getting back on this thread:

I have succeed in a cold start, but what persnickety engines they are!!!:jump:

First, thanks Mugel, I believe the carb heat was one big help.

Second, it takes a very long time for those engines to fully start, a minute or two, with the starter and primer on full.

Third the throttle needed to be at about 20 percent.

It seemed once the temp gauge over the oil and fuel gauges became 30 deg C, the engines would start fully.

Engine sounds really fluctuated during early start, with a whumping sound that synched with the tach swinging back and forth.

Fourth the fuel richness needed to be moved to auto rich at the right time.

Fifth, a warmer day helps. Was successful at 59 deg F, but was easier on an 80 deg F day.

These were my experiences, they may not be the same for everyone. They may change the next time I try.

If Aerosoft wanted us to nurse these engines on start up, they certainly succeeded. Kinda fun when it works, but it takes too long for me. Will use CTRL-E much more often than a cold start.:icon_lol:
 
I've only seen a real WWII-vintage radial started on a few occasions, but it always struck me that it was a "cross your fingers and pray" kinda deal. Sounds like Aerosoft got pretty close to reality with this one.
 
its the carb heat - it needs to be on..at least in the conditions I've used so far

maybe in summer season with 80 deg weather it won't be necessary but I use FSX default seasons generally.
 
What really struck me is the fact that the engines have to crank 2 to 4 min when the temp is 57 deg F outside, before the fuel-oil temp gauge gets to the magical 30 deg C. That may be realistic, but I had no idea it would take that long.

On another note, I installed the C++ redistributable files to get the extra sounds recommended by Aerosoft, except for the x64 file which is not compatible with my 32 bit Vista. It was really worth the effort. The additional sounds include the "check" voice when the cp checks your checklist, switch sounds, pump sounds, APU sounds and more. I may have even heard a splashing sound once when water landing. These sounds really help the immersion.:icon_lol:
 
Glad, that I could be of help, had that, too, on Beta, as I usually fly with 10Nm... But this makes it really interesting, not just push the starter and go!

About the warm up time, keep in mind, that each engine has an oil tank of 55 gallons.

And about carb heat, remember that it is not just on/off on the Catalina, the longer you hold it on, the warmer the carb temperatures get, make sure you don´t get temperatures about 50°C, that´s the point where the engine really loses power. I tend to use about 30°C.
 
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