I feel your pain about the engine startup, as I just finally got it to work reliably last night, after spending two nights on this. If it makes you feel any better, even with my Dad on the phone (he worked on them for 30+ years) helping me it took forever.

Here's what I've got for you: http://www.fsstation.com/tutorials/captain-sim-lockheed-c130.html The only thing you want to change is where he says to "go to the captain sim menu" to activate the ground power unit, just hit the E on the captain sim panel to accomplish the same thing. Outside of that, follow those directions exactly like it says. I promise it will work. I rushed through it several times and it didn't work. Just do it word for word and you'll get those engines lit.

A couple pieces of advice I can give is to make sure all 4 engine bleed valves are closed before you start from C&D. Mine always seem to be open by default. I don't know if that's a deal-breaker, but it's something I noticed. The 2nd thing that I've noticed is sometimes when I go to actually start the first engine I have to hit the button a couple of times before it gets going...as if it were a glitch.

I'm not sure about your AP issues. I've never had any trouble with the ALT hold. During normal flight I have the top switch to Heading, selector to HDG, Power and Engage are lit, all three rocker switches pointed up, Track is lit, and finally, the little arrow on the Height/IAS button is pointed to Height and it is lit. My advise, get straight and level at your altitude before you Height/IAS on. Also, hitting the pitch swith in either direction will give you problems. All it really does is keep your altitude steady. I have seen it jump like you mentioned though. Not so much like that, but It'd happen to me shortly after turning AP off during final approach. It's almost like it's picking up where my elevator trim is actually set and adjusts to it. Something like that anyway.

Hope this helps you. I'm not sure about your other AP issue. I'm starting on figuring all that out tonight (now that I can turn the darn plane on). Stay tuned and we can compare notes.

Good luck!

r