I've followed in the book and on this link http://www.fsstation.com/tutorials/captain-sim-lockheed-c130.html how to start my C-130, but it does not work.  :-/

I've no idea why, the only way I can start up is by ending the flight and re starting, which takes the realism out of landing, shutting down and doing another cold and dark start. Any ideas?

try Ctrl E to see if it works at all

I too have the same problem where I cannot start the C130 in FSX. In FS2004 no problems. Pressing CTRL E works,  but this should not be the way to start properly!!! In this case although the engines start all I can hear is one of them spooling up as if trying to start. Not good enough CTRL E im afraid.
I have followed the tutorial and it still refuses to start...
Can anyone please help

Keith

I am having the same issue running V1.3

Dito. The link mentioned in post 1 was actually written in 2005 hence for FS2004 (one would assume). There must have been some slight change for FSX as I get all the way to actually pushing the Red Starter and nothing happens.

I would have thought the dev team would have had a tutorial in the manual for Cold and Dark Starts?!

James.

Have you cycled through the views (p9 Part II manual)?  I tried to save the rainforest by using my FS2004 manuals and couldn't start the engines, but the view-cycling fixed it...

I have and I realized the issue is that the 2d starters on the over head need to be used not the 3d in the VC. and only clicked not held.

Same problems here. Since v1.3. Now i will remove it and try V1.0 again.

Hi Guy's,

In Manual 3 starting (I think) page 10 is an Engine Startup sequence but the best one I found (and I think it's in this forum but can't find it) so will add it here. This has worked every time for me in FSX.

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First you need to turn on the battery by rotating the knob to line up with the green mark.  Then to power the pilot's and co-pilot's essential flight instruments you rotate those two knobs to the green lines to receive battery power.  Note:  despite its complex appearance, the yellow, red, and green lines painted on the flight engineer's panel are quite helpful and logical.  Green is the battery power.  Yellow is the generator power flows.  And red is the fuel flow paths.  The knobs are rotated to line up or block off these flow paths as you desire.

OK, after you have the battery powered up, then set the parking brake and turn on the GTC.  The GTC (called an APU in the C-130H model aircraft) is essentially a small turbine engine designed to produce electrical power and compressed air.  The compressed air is used to power up the turbines for engine startup.  To turn on the GTC you first open up the GTC door.  Then you rotate the knob to the start position and then let it go to the run position.  You will wait for the yellow/orange light to illuminate indicating start up and then wait for that light to extinquish which indicates the start up is complete.  Then, flip the switch immediately to the right to bring the GTC turbine up to speed.  Then wait for the green light which indicates the GTC turbines are rotating at proper speed and thus producing proper power and bleed air.

Then, flip the switch to open up the GTC bleed air port.

Then, flip each of the switches below that one to open up the bleed air ports to each of the four engines (note: in the virtual aircraft this is the default setting -- just make sure each of those switches are turned to the on position else no bleed air will get to the turbines and the engines will not start up).  You can also elect to do this in sequence with each engine started or do them all at once.  Does not matter in the virtual aircraft as I have observed.

Push each of the prop condition levers to the full forward position.  You want to start the engines with the props in full RPM setting.   (Likewise to shut down the engines while in flight or on the ground rotate the prop lever ful aft to the feather position.  This shuts down the engine as it feathers the prop.)  Then line up all the throttle levers to the ground idle values.  Be sure you are NOT in the reverse zone.

After this you locate each of the large red round disk-shaped push buttons located just above the aircraft commander's head.  These are the starters in sequence left to right for engines 1, 2, 3, and 4.  In actual C-130 operations we normally elected to first start engine number three because it allowed a ground crew member to unplug and remove the external power cart if we elected to power up the navigational instruments like the INU's and GPS.  The battery could not produce enough power to power up all these extra instruments.

The power cart was connected on the left side of the aircraft, so starting the number three engine first allowed the flight engineer to get that generator fully on line to produce the power to keep all the instruments powered up.  After the generator was online the ground crew would disconnect and remove the power cart.  But, for the virtual aircraft you use the battery for primary flight instrument power and the GTC for bleed air, so it doesn't matter what engine you start first.

To initiate the starter, you briefly mouse over the start button and click and release the left mouse button to cycle it.  On the actual C-130's the pilot would press down and hold the starter until a parallel indicator light illuminated and fuel flow, torque, and TIT was indicated.  But I have found in the virtual aircraft that if you hold down the starter it just cycles the starter igniters without actually turning the turbines.  So, just do a quick cycle -- just one brief left mouse button click.

In the virtual aircraft the response time is quicker than in real life.  However, you will see a surge in torque (again not realistic but a common problem with all turbine engines in the FS series due entirely to code limitations in the primary game code).  Wait for the torque to settle back down to the proper idle setting.  

Once you verify proper ground idle power values on the engine instruments, then rotate the associated generator knob to the on position.  In vers 1.0 you had to first cycle the knob to the re-set position.  This was not realistic and vers 1.1 fixed this issue.  (However, I have noted that the number two generator does not show a power indication.  That is a bug I have reported.)  For the other engines (1, 3, and 4) once you have the engine powered up in ground idle and rotate the generator knob to the on position, you will see the power needle move to a powered state.

Once you have at least one generator on line and power flow indication on the needle, then you can switch from battery power to main DC power.  First, turn the ATM power knob to the re-set position and then to the on position.  You will see the ATM needle power up at this point.  Then, to the 4 o'clock of this you will see the power bus knobs.  One allows you to select main or essential power modes of operation.  You want to select the main power option.  The essential DC is designed to provide emergency power to essential flight instruments only.  This is selected only when you have a generator failure and are concerned about minimizing total power draw.

Now reference the pilot and co-pilot instrument power knobs and rotate them to line up with the yellow line.  This powers these flight instruments off the generator vice the battery.  To the left of these knobs is another knob (sorry name escapes me at the moment -- shame on me!) and you rotate this to also line up with the generator power yellow line.

At this point, you can rotate the battery knob to the recharge position, which is full left and aligned with the upper green line.  This setting allows the generator power to recharge the battery during flight.  

Now repeat the start up sequence for the remaining engines and bring each associated generator online.  From this point forward the C-130 have four independently running generators each able to singularly power all required instrumentation provided the associated engine is not in low speed ground idle.  Those are the little green disk-shaped buttons you push down and are located on the center console just left of the co-pilot.  These are pressed down to engage the engine in low-speed ground idle.  It helps preserve fuel and minimize engine wear and tear.  But remember, at least in the real aircraft, it also robs generator power so you must have at least one engine on speed or a ground power cart connected.
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This is Page 1.

Page 2.

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The power knob on the left side I could not remember is the left hand AC power feed.  Like I wrote you do want to rotate that to the on position once you have at least one generator on line and engine on speed.

BTW:  One other thing I forgot.  The GTC on the C-130E models (affectionately known at the Goat) cannot be on during flight because the doors cannot withstand the air pressures.  So, you must shut down the GTC and shut the doors prior to taxi.

The H models and later (including the MC-130E) had the APU which was a similar small turbine engine to produce bleed air and power but it had its own air intake on the right side of the aircraft and was rated for air operations.  So we could and did keep the APU powered up during flight.  It could provide an emergency source of power if for some strange reason all four engines had to be shut down in flight.

Ken

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Hope this helps.

hey,

nice walkthrough!!
thanks a lot!!
yesterday, I saved a 'cold and dark' state,
you're post will be very helpfull to get back online,
when I find the time  :P
stupid exams at the moment so flying is not a priority right now
(or it shouldn't be  :P)

Tyrion

NOPE still not starting !!!

What the heck have I got to do to get this thing started in FSX...FS9 fine but FSX... :-[

What a waste of money ..and I notice CS once again fails to show any involvement in the thread! :-?

Hey,

I finally managed to get the C-130 X-Perience started from cold and dark! I found a video on youtube that helped me a great deal!
the only adjustment needed to the tutorial (for me anyway) is that you have to put ALL condition levers in the 'run' position to start any engine!
When I tried that, it worked...
the video can be seen here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQKAl8LbrRU

I hope it helps,
Tyrion

Hi,
Only 5 steps and it works for me:
1. load default cessna
2. switch off avionics, master, engine
3. load C-130
4. Press F9, F10, F11, F12
5. watch film and make all steps.

Greetings,
Danielos

Hi Guy's,

Alway's wondered upto last night as to why everyone has to select the default Cesna then shut everything down prior to selecting the C-130 to start the engines.

1. My default aircraft prior to installing the C-130 was the Sea/Jayhawk from another company. This was a start up from Cold and Dark, hence, when I loaded up the C-130 (and going by Ken's sugestion above) I could start up no problem.

2. I have on a dual bootup Windows 7 Beta. Installed FSX and guess what! You still have to  (now) load up the Cesna, shut everything down and then load the C-130. You can now start the engines  :-? ;D

When I first bought the new 130 I couldn't get it to start either... NOW IT STARTS FINE.  This is how I did it:
Go to
FSX Options>settings>controls-- Buttons/keys tab
Scroll down to Engine Fuel Valves (all open/close)
Map a key combination to this event and hit it before you start the engines.

Works every time for me.   :)

--songright--


"FLY SAFE"

Hey songright,
thanks a lot for the hint,
I'll be sure to test it as soon as I have some time!!

Tyrion

EDIT:
I just had some time, and indeed, using a key to open all fuel valves works.
My C-130 starts up just fine from cold and dark now!!
thanks a lot Songright!

You're welcome!  Glad it helped. ;D