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l_schuiling

Engine start DC6 B

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hi all,

by now i must have read the manual a 1000 times and watched video's on youtube, but no matter what i try  i cant get the enige to catch.

the before start checklist is complete,

 

mixture enigine 3 auto rich

throttle a bit open

fule tank selected main

grownd power on

fuel booster eng 3 low

eng 3 selected

mag to both

i hit start

on 3 sec i prime on 12 i boost

engine comes to life, but dies out after a sec or 2

what could be wrong?

regards

Leon 

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That's rather weird. What's your outside temperature and what's the engine status on the maintenance panel? It's also not recommended to start the engine with mixture in auto-rich, that's clearly stated in the POH. I usually leave the mixture in cutoff until the engine fires on the primer, only then I set the mixture to auto-rich.

 Does the engine catch after a few start attempts or does it not fire at all?

Last resort could be a clean re-install of the DC-6. Might be something interfering with it or something might be corrupted in the worst case.

Edited by serviceceiling

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The "open throttle a bit" could be a problem.  Not enough open and nothing starts.  I line up the back edge of the throttle levers with the first set of rivets on the throttle pedestal you pass as you open.  Then switch set to Start 3, then boost on low, then prime on and within 5 sec engage starter.  Mags on both after 6 blade callout, boost on and when it coughs mixture auto rich.  This works for me 90% of the time.  Adding to Bogdan, do not start pistons with mag on until the engine has turned over a couple of revs to make sure it rotates freely.  The throttles in the position I use will result in an RPM of about 1500 after it stabilizes.  After all four are fired up set RPM to 1000 (MP about 9.5) while you start cockpit checks.

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Dan Downs KCRP

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I believe the problem lies with attempting the start in AUTO-RICH. You should be flooding the engine, if it is modeled correctly.

Keep the mixture in IDLE-CUTOFF until you hear the engine catch, then quickly select AUTO-RICH.

Here is my procedure for FSX:A Boxed,

Pre start: Mixure idle cutoff. Carb heat cold. Prop max RPM. Throttle set for 1000 RPM. Mag off. Cowl flap full open. GPU/Power on. Fuel tank selected. Fuel pump low. Check fuel PSI.

Set the selector switch to the desired engine, and press start. AFE starts counting blades.

"3": Primer on.

"6": Mag to both.

"9": Boost on.

"12": Engine will catch. You have about 2 seconds from the beginning of this sound to set the mixture to AUTO-RICH (it will actually start in AUTO-LEAN as well). If you delay, the engine will stall. If the engine spools up, check oil pressure and set for 800-1000 RPM.

It feels pretty artificial, but if you get the timing right it starts up pretty easy.

 

Robert Toten

Edited by randomTOTEN

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Quick question for the OP - how are you loading the aircraft into the sim?

I couldn't get the engines to start until I discovered that the DC-6 doesn't like being loaded directly into the sim in a cold-and-dark state if your default flight includes a cold-and-dark default aircraft.  I use a cold-and-dark default flight to make sure that other aircraft don't load with engines running.  But something in that setup keeps the DC-6 from starting.  My guess is that some system (maybe fuel?) fails to initialize properly.  Whatever the cause, the result is that the DC-6's engines will crank, then die, no matter how your mixtures are set or how you time the primer, start and boost.

The solution is to load a default aircraft, then start it using CNTL +E, then load the DC-6 (its engines will be running), then set the DC-6 to cold-and-dark using the PMDG menus.  You can now go through your startup routine and get good starts with only the usual amount of balking - typically I get one engine that needs a second attempt, but that's it.

I puzzled over this behavior for the longest time when I first bought the aircraft.  I'm a years-long veteran of A2A aircraft and was a small part of the beta team on the latest edition of Manfred Jahn's C-47, so I'm no stranger to the amount of creativity required to start a radial engine.  But I couldn't get anywhere with the DC-6 until I realized with the help of another user (the thread must still be around the forum somewhere) that the problem was a system issue, not a powerplant or pilot issue.  

I hope that a fix might eventually happen in an update, but unless or until it does, the workaround isn't too difficult or burdensome.

Hope this helps.

Edited by Alan_A

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I never load a default aircraft before the DC-6 and it starts up as it should from C&D every time. If you're actualy having problems/anomalies then there are some issues with your sim. 

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Thanks for chiming in.  But the issue I'm describing is unique to the DC-6.

I normally load PMDG aircraft directly into the sim, as PMDG generally instructs.

But in the case of the DC-6, this prevented engine start.  Loading my default flight and starting the engines solved the problem.

No other aircraft on my system (there are many, and they're complex) has been similarly affected.

Here's the long thread from soon after the release of the P3D version of the DC-6 where the problem was discussed.  FYI that it also includes a lot of insight and a variety of techniques for starting radial engines.

Here's the post (from member JRS182) that first put me onto the issue with the cold-and-dark default flight.  A discussion about it follows.

Our flightsim computers are certainly complex and quirky, and it's possible that there's something on my system (and JRS182's) that doesn't affect other users.  But that doesn't mean that the problem doesn't exist.

At minimum, why don't we see if any of this applies to the OP's problem?  If it does, then there's something in the DC-6 that's worth investigating.  If not, we can go back to talking about startup technique.  Does that make sense?

 

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Yes, agreed. Wasn't even aware of these problems until now, hence why I thought it was a technical/operational issue of the DC-6 itself.

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It was the same with me, as you can tell from that earlier thread - I was absolutely convinced that I was missing something about DC-6 startup technique, or there was something quirky about the airplane compared to others I'd used.  It was only after several days of frustration that JRS182 put me onto the default flight as a possible cause.

I'm not sure how many people set the aircraft in their default flights to cold-and-dark.  I do it because I fly a lot of third-party GA airplanes that can't easily be set to cold and dark using a menu command, which means that if they load with engines running, you've got to go through all the manual steps to shut them down.  It's a bit of an immersion killer.  But anyone using a standard engines-running default flight won't be affected.  Makes it very hard to narrow down.

Of course, if the OP doesn't start his sim the way I do, then we're back to square one.

Just part of what makes simming so exciting... :cool:

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