Engine restart problems!

What are the most possible reasons for which the engine will remain at 0% GG RPM and won't start anymore?

Fristly, one engine starts and after i shut it down i won't be able to start it back because the RPM will be stuck at 0% when i want to restart, but still, there would be like 165 degrees centigrade readable on the EGT gague...!

The only method that i've found so far after i start an engine..., I HAVE to let it stay at idle for at least one minute before i shut it down:doh:, because if i shut it down before one minute passes since started, i won't be able to start it anymore...!:(Dohh:(

Do you have a track file displaying this behaviour?What are the circumstances and settings?

if you quickly start an engine and shut it down it will be flooded with fuel and you will need to dry start it using the crank start option on the toggle switch by the APU-L-R selector switch. it will run the engine for about 15-20 seconds and clear it of any fuel...then it should start...

Yeah but even if it's flooded it'll simply fail to ignite. The RPM won't stay 0%.

??? Jet engines don't "flood". Besides, False Start introduces even more fuel into the engine, it only skips ignition. You need to use "CRANK" to spin the engine with no fuel and no ignition.

Poor terminology I know, but the very general concept is the same: You do this process that makes the engine ready to really start. zangler and I were simply referring to the FALSE start procedure that one does in certain situations.

I was just replying to zangler that the "0% RPM" behavior is weird because even if you don't do the FALSE start, you should at least get some RPM activity along with no ignition.

Indeed, if the starter is working, you should get an RPM indication. I'm pretty sure that turbine lockup due to insufficient cooldown is NOT modeled, so I don't think that's the problem. Check to see that the starter light is coming on when you try to start the engines. It's the START VLV light on the engine start panel. If it isn't, then something is broken. Wait three minutes with everything off and you will get a new helicopter.

Also, try placing the start switch in the CRANK position and hit the start button. If that works, you'll get an RPM indication and a START VLV light, but no fuel and no ignition (doon't open the fuel cutoff lever like you do in a normal start, though). Then let the RPM spool back down to zero, and try a normal start. Of course, if nothing get the RPM needle to budge, then the starter or engine has a malfunction and you'll need to just turn everything off and get "repaired".

i noticed that after a rearm process, one of my engines was shut down.

it is something that ocured a couple of crash, because i realised it, when i was

half runway trying to take off with a severe loss of power.:music_whistling:

Start the APU prior to start the engine. Without auxiliary power, the engine will not start rotating.

I had a situation where I got a bit shot up but I was ok to make it home. Halfway home though I was notified by ekran that the rear tank was low. Shortly after it was gone. All the fuel leaked out but I still had plenty in the front tank. What i thought strange was when the rear tank ran dry one of the engines died with it. I always have crossfeed on so I thought they should have both ran on the forward tank. Can they not both share on the same tank?

crossfeed has worked for me before (limping home on bingo, one tank always goes before the other, but I managed to keep both engines until the final flop on deck - pity the FARP only had a rearm truck and not a fuel one though... even bigger pity I couldn't tell that until I had landed without any fuel...)

Maybe you sustained some other dmg that hindered it, hydraulics perhaps?

Maverick hasn't been back since and it's utterly hopeless to try to guess what happened without either a track or a detailed explanation. Fun though.

I had no warnings and the aircraft handled fine. Forward tank was about 1/3 full so I had plenty gas even when the aft tank leaked dry. The engine died as soon as the tank was dry. I tried a restart in flight and checked all the fuel pumps and stuff but it wouldnt start so I had to finish the flight on one engine.

The crossfeed defaults to OFF. I know the switch is in the up position and this is misleading. To open crossfeed, flip up the switch cover and push the switch down.

EDIT: It should be mentioned that this is actually a bug (albeit one with very low priority). The switch is supposed to be protected in the down (CLOSED) position. The down position is CLOSED and the up position is OPEN, just like the three fuel valve switches to the left of the crossfeed switch. This is in the real aircraft. In the game, however, the crossfeed switch is backwards. For the crossfeed switch only, the up position is CLOSED, and down is OPEN. Very irritating, I know. In fact, I will do some searching for past status of this one and see if I can find an open or closed bug for it.

Reference photo: http://walkarounds.airforce.ru/avia/rus/kamov/ka-50/airforce_ru_ka-50_81.jpg

Pretty much without exception the "running/ normal/ happy" state of any covered switch is the position that allows the switch cap to close fully due to the little hole in the cover.

The only exceptions that I can think of are the UV-26 and the Main Hydraulics/EKRAN switch on the rear right panel. Everything else can be quickly visually checked by noticing the caps.

Thus when you know that X-Feed is not normally engaged, which switch directions do what becomes clear by noting how the cap works.

Maverick hasn't been back since and it's utterly hopeless to try to guess what happened without either a track or a detailed explanation. Fun though.

"Detailed explanation": start your engine, turn it off right after that and you have a problem.

Track:

krt.trk

Pretty much without exception the "running/ normal/ happy" state of any covered switch is the position that allows the switch cap to close fully due to the little hole in the cover.

 

The only exceptions that I can think of are the UV-26 and the Main Hydraulics/EKRAN switch on the rear right panel. Everything else can be quickly visually checked by noticing the caps.

 

Thus when you know that X-Feed is not normally engaged, which switch directions do what becomes clear by noting how the cap works.

Absolutely true. But there is still confusion since UP is OPEN/ON and DOWN is CLOSED/OFF for almost every switch in the aircraft. Also the fact that this particular switch is backwards from the real aircraft.

Just to clarify, the switch should be protected when crossfeed is engaged? I know in small aircraft Ive always flown with crossfeed on. Not many situations I can think of for tanks to be emptied one at a time.

As far as I can make out the Ka-50 is supposed to fly with crossfeed off unless you have a significant imbalance or a low fuel situation. F-16 was similar in Open Falcon.

Logic being, I think, that a separated fuel system is less problematic under battle damage and plain less likely to have something weird happen like dissimilar tank usage, cross feed imbalancing, pressure differentials, and just plain bad mojo. Better to lose half your fuel than all of it if something goes wrong.

A16, the switch-art for the crossfeed switch is modeled wrong (compare: reality)?

yeah actually what happened to me with one tank leaking out is good reason to shut down crossfeed. but otherwise any normal flight situation I wouldnt think y it should be off. still doesnt explain y one of my engines shut down unless they r plumbed to seperate tanks, and that simply makes absolutely no sense at all. I also was not able to start the auxillary engine so they were both affected by it somehow.

pity the FARP only had a rearm truck and not a fuel one though... even bigger pity I couldn't tell that until I had landed without any fuel...

Could have tried "rearming" to drop-tanks, and suck the fuel from them to your internal tanks, then re-arm to weapons. :P

(Though I'm not 100% positive you can get the drop-tanks when you don't have a fuel truck, but the fact that you get them through rearm interface might cause this to be possible.)

Actually, having one of your tanks leaking is exactly why you DO open the crossfeed valve. Also, when one tank gets the 100kg alarm, you should also open the crossfeed valve.

The tanks do not crossfeed into each other. The crossfeed valve only allows fuel from either tank to feed either engine. Even if the crossfeed valve is open, fuel will not transfer from one tank to the other. The APU and the right engine feed from the aft tank. If the crossfeed valve is closed and your aft tank is empty, you cannot operate the APU or the right engine.

A16, the switch-art for the crossfeed switch is modeled wrong (compare: reality)?

Correct, in the real aircraft, the switch looks just like the APU fuel shutoff valve switch, in that it is normally DOWN during flight. In the game, the switch operates properly, it's just that the visual is backwards.

aww thanks for the clarification. I was 90% sure it was the right engine that shut down but couldnt remember exactly. So if you have external tanks, do those also feed the engines directly or do they pump into the main tanks? I switched on left/right pumps mid flight once and the fuel indicator level seemed to creep back up very slowly, but it was so slow it was hard to tell by the time i got back to base. If I observed it correctly it looked like it only increased one of the internal tanks.

Left external tanks feed the aft tank, right external tanks feed the forward tank. The switch in the cockpit turns on inner or outer tanks, you can't pick left/right individually. So if you have two external tanks, one will feed each tank.