Cold Start using Ground Power

[Rudel_chw]

Hello,

 

I'm in the process of fully learning this helo and I'm a bit confused about the proper Cold Start Procedure in regard of the electrical system. On ED's manual (page 242) it divides the procedure in two alternatives:

 

A. Start with Batteries

B. Start with Ground Power

 

Then the simplified procedure for Case B says at the end "continue with Case A"; that would mean that after having the AC and DC buses powered from the Ground, I still have to enable the Batteries. 

 

But then, on page 246, the detailed procedure for Case B says no such thing and the batteries are not enabled.

 

Please, can someone more experienced that me, tell me which is the proper way to Cold Start the Mi-8 when using Ground Power?

Thanks a lot,

 

 

Eduardo

 

 

 

 

 

[unknown]

Maybe @AlphaOneSix can chime in and shed some light on it?

 

I don't know if this will help you in the meantime(Mi-17 / battery before external power i would say): 

(if the pics are in any way problematic please tell me and i remove them or a mod can delete them -> probably faster)

 

 

Edited January 30, 2021 by unknown

[Rudel_chw]

25 minutes ago, unknown said:

Maybe @AlphaOneSix can chime in and shed some light on it?

 

I don't know if this will help you in the meantime(Mi-17 / battery before external power i would say): 

(if the pics are in any way problematic please tell me and i remove them or a mod can delete them -> probably faster)

 

 

 

Thanks a lot .. I do have the Manual of the real Mi-17 (TM-1-1520-Mi-17-10 - Operator Manual), and I have been re-reading it and contrasting with ED's manual ... seems that I've misunderstood the Procedure and the Batteries are always used, even if Ground Power can also be connected (probably to use if the Batteries are not fully charged).

 

So, it seems that there isn't two alternatives, but rather a single Procedure with the optional step of connecting a GPU if needed. However, I can Cold Start the Mi-8 with the batteries OFF, using only Ground Power, that can be disconnected once the engine generators are running .. seems the batteries are needed during flight only as a Backup power source.

[unknown]

6 minutes ago, Rudel_chw said:

I do have the Manual of the real Mi-17 (TM-1-1520-Mi-17-10 - Operator Manual)

Yeah, thats where the pictures are taken from. 

 

6 minutes ago, Rudel_chw said:

and the Batteries are always used, even if Ground Power can also be connected (probably to use if the Batteries are not fully charged).

Thats how i understood it too.

 

Would be nice if AlphaOneSix could tell us more RL experience about it but it looks like he wasn't on the forums lately

 

 

Edited January 30, 2021 by unknown

[AlphaOneSix]

Sorry, I've been away from the forums for a long time.

 

The batteries are always turned on, even when starting with ground power. It is true that they do not need to be turned on if you have a DC ground power source, since the APU generator and eventually the rectifiers will power all of the DC electrical buses. However, the batteries are just a backup/emergency power source in case of a problem in-flight that causes both rectifiers to go offline, to give you power to start the APU in flight so that you can use the APU generator for DC power. And of course, the batteries are also to start the APU on the ground when DC external power is not available. My understanding is that most "Russian-like" operators of the Mi-8 use external power as much as possible for the APU start, just to go easy on the batteries. My organization has replaced all of the default NiCad batteries with Concorde SLABs (Sealed Lead-Acid Batteries), and we never use external power unless we're testing something on the ground for a prolonged period of time.

[unknown]

8 hours ago, AlphaOneSix said:

Sorry, I've been away from the forums for a long time.

 

The batteries are always turned on, even when starting with ground power. It is true that they do not need to be turned on if you have a DC ground power source, since the APU generator and eventually the rectifiers will power all of the DC electrical buses. However, the batteries are just a backup/emergency power source in case of a problem in-flight that causes both rectifiers to go offline, to give you power to start the APU in flight so that you can use the APU generator for DC power. And of course, the batteries are also to start the APU on the ground when DC external power is not available. My understanding is that most "Russian-like" operators of the Mi-8 use external power as much as possible for the APU start, just to go easy on the batteries. My organization has replaced all of the default NiCad batteries with Concorde SLABs (Sealed Lead-Acid Batteries), and we never use external power unless we're testing something on the ground for a prolonged period of time.

Thanks for the clarification!

[admiki]

9 hours ago, AlphaOneSix said:

Sorry, I've been away from the forums for a long time.

 

The batteries are always turned on, even when starting with ground power. It is true that they do not need to be turned on if you have a DC ground power source, since the APU generator and eventually the rectifiers will power all of the DC electrical buses. However, the batteries are just a backup/emergency power source in case of a problem in-flight that causes both rectifiers to go offline, to give you power to start the APU in flight so that you can use the APU generator for DC power. And of course, the batteries are also to start the APU on the ground when DC external power is not available. My understanding is that most "Russian-like" operators of the Mi-8 use external power as much as possible for the APU start, just to go easy on the batteries. My organization has replaced all of the default NiCad batteries with Concorde SLABs (Sealed Lead-Acid Batteries), and we never use external power unless we're testing something on the ground for a prolonged period of time.

During my service time, on base starts would always be with ground power. If more than 2 starts are planned off base (parachuting competition and such) we would drive APU truck to site (adventure by itself)