For those of you who are still having difficulty starting the C130 engines, try this method. It works for me every time,it may not be the exact method used in real life but it works in flight simulation.

Begin with your 130 ACE editor,enter your fuel and cargo weights etc and click on save and your simulator will begin. You should be in the Cold and Dark situation. (If you want to begin with the default Cessna in position with all generators and batteries off that's OK too.)

Open the upper panel and make sure the Ground Power switch is in the OFF position. Click  battery switch to ON, (that's the switch with the green stripe on it). Open the guarded switch ( essential DC bus switch is under there) and click switch to the right. The four small meters to the left of the battery switch will show some readings. There is a black switch to the right of the battery switch which says. ESS DC BUS, MAIN DC BUS and BATT. Place this switch to MAIN DC BUS position.

Now start the GTC.  Click on DOOR TO OPEN position, the orange light will come on. Now GTC switch to start position. When you are happy the GTC has fired up put the GTC Bleed Air switch to OPEN.
Now,place ATM switch to start position (there is no noise from the ATM when this happens.)
Look down the panel and you will see the engine generator panels, and to the right of these is the ATM generator switch (yellow stripe on the switch). Now click on this switch- first to RESET and then to FIELD TRIP. Now go to the right of the ATM gen switch and there is a switch which says VOLTAGE and FREQUENCY SELECTOR. Click onto the ATM position. The gauge above this switch will show voltage readings.
You now have the power you need to begin the engine start sequence.

Open up the two wing Isolation switches to NORMAL (unguard them first).

Now go to number 3 engine position and click Bleed Air to OPEN position, go down to the generator selector switch (right below the bleed air switch) and select number 3 Engine Generator Switch to the 12 o'clock position the light MUST BE ON RED.

Now open up the Throttle Quadrant and make sure all the Engine Condition levers are in the full forward position, (the AIR START position),ALL OF THEM!

Now open up the lower engineers panel and click and hold on number 3 engine starter switch, the  RED light will come on, as will a small light right above the start button. The ENGINE GAUGE PANEL will automatically appear. If you have followed the sequnce correctly number 3 engine will spool up very rapidly, now release the start switch , make sure the gauge shows temperature and torque etc and go back to the upper engineers panel.

Now you need to bring the number 3 engine generator online. Go to the number 3 gen switch and first go to RESET and then to FIELD TRIP position (which is the 12 o'clock position), the light will go out, and the generator gauge will show a voltage reading.  Now go to the right to the switch which says VOLTAGE AND FREQUENCY and place the switch from ATM to number 3 ENG position, this will switch the power source from the ATM to number 3 generator ,you will still have a voltage reading on the gauge.

Go through this same sequence for the other 3 engines, first select bleed air to the engine and then the generator switch to the 12 o'clock position and then the engine starter switch.  (There is no need to select any position in the VOLTAGE AND FREQUENCY panel, number 3 engine is providing all power).
(When you sart number 2 engine and put the engine generator to the reset and then the field trip position,it will not show any voltage reading on the gauge, this is normal. It will come online when the ATM is switched off and all engines are running.)

When all engines are fired up and running, switch OFF the ATM.  Select GTC BLEED AIR to the CLOSED position.  GTC switch to the OFF position.  GTC door to the CLOSE position. You can leave all the engine bleed air switched in  the open position ,including the wing isolation valves.

Leave the BATTERY switch (the one with the green stripe) in the ON position.  Now all the engine generators are online and showing voltage readings on all engine generator gauges.  GTC and ATM are both OFF. There should be no red lights showing on the engine generators.

Now set the engine OIL COOLER FLAPS to the Automatic position (on the engineers lower panel.)



You can now carry out the fuel panel check sequence as per the manual.

Have a good flight.

John.

Hi Loadman,

Thank you for your start procedure. I have tried to follow the start sequence, but I have a weird problem: I can follow the procedure just to "Open up the two wing isolation switches ..., I can unguard them but they does not change position. When I click the button, the cursor changes to a fist, and that's all. The same is true for the bleed air valve switches. Is there in some way a trick I does not know  ?

Regards,

Hugo

yeha im sorry. i meant condition levers i know what tehy do but you cant push tehm foward with teh mouse and have your mosue holding the starter at teh same time hence an unrealistic hot start

Cessna.

Before you attempt to start the engines, make sure all the condition levers are fully forward by using the mouse. Like I said before , the levers are normally in the fully forward position when you click on the throttle quadrant icon and the quadrant appears on the screen, just make sure they are fully forward.  Once they are fully forward you do not need to touch them again, even when starting the engines as they are in the correct position. Do not attempt to push the lever forward when you are clicking on the start switch as they should already be in the correct position.


John.

Loadman:

You hit the nail. Your inputs to this forum is unvalueable. Many thanks for your help. I use it and works liker a swiss clock

Mendione

Loadman..... I´m very pleasure to know that somebody is worried about us....

I do that you say exactly until the number 3 start.... the problem that i have is when I push the number 3 start button... nothing happens.....

nothing...... the prop is not turn.... the gauges dont show any movement.... nothing happens.....

well...i have some problems..for example...when i use the 130 ACE.. and choose the fuel, payload , etc.. and then make a save ... i receive a message that says..   Aircraft configurator etc...  no have any .FLT file associated ...  and the MSFS dont start automatically....

I have to start from the cessna....  runoff the engine... the avionics off.... alternator and battery off.... all the switchs off....  and then change the aircraft.... and choose the C-130...     then your start sequence..( thank you very much )  and when I start the N3 engine... nothing happens.....  all the items before that are right... but i dont see any signal that i have starting an engine....

Thank you for your answer..

Hogo.

Looking at your screen shot it seems that you have the GTC and the ATM started OK, the gauges are showing voltage and the GTC bleed air switch is on OK, the battery switch and dc bus switches are in their correct positions.  I do not understand why you cannot switch on the wing isolation and the engine bleed switches.  If the mouse works on the GTC and ATM switches it should also work on the rest. I will try to duplicate your problem on my computer by trying different procedures and see if I can find the answer.  Will get back to you soon.
John.

Mendione.

Thankyou for your input, I am sure your additional instructions will help as well.
John.

Hugo.

I have checked the screen shot you sent and every thing still looks OK.  I have tried to create your problem on my flt simulator but every thing is OK.  I have tried different positions for the bleed air switches as well as the generators but every thing appears OK. I still do not understand why you cannot click on the bleed air when your GTC and the ATM and the power switches are working perfectly. Have you changed the aircraft config file at all? Have you uninstalled it and then reinstalled it? If you have not, then it could be a problem with your C130 programme. The only people who could help there are the Capt Sim team. Send them an E Mail and tell them the mouse only works on certain switches, they should be able to give an answer.Perhaps they may read about this item here and reply.

I will continue to look for the problem.

John.

Hugo.

Check out the manual (Part 1 Aircraft) page 76.  Start the GTC and the ATM,put ATM generator online and open GTC bleed air switch ,then check out the bleed air circuit breakers on the co pilot side circuit breaker panel. Make sure the circuit breakers are closed. If they are open this is your problem. If the cicuit breaker is open then there is no power to the switch.

John.

Brian Thibodeaux.

Thank you for your very technical input,I am sure that all of us who are not Flt Engineers or Flt Mechanics appreciate your expertise on the C130. My intentions in submitting what works for me was for the benefit of those whose mother tongue is not English and was not in any way a technical treatise on real life aviation.
As for your comment on the location of the circuit breaker panel, I did point out that it was available on page 76 of the Manual part 1- Aircraft .

In future I will leave all the technical stuff to you real life Flight Engineers .

Loadman.

Loadman,

Thanks for the help. I have tracked the error: for some weird reason the switch icon on the 2D panel doesn't change. If I click the bleed air valve switch on the 2D panel, nothing seems to happen, however, in the VC, the switch is activated! Next, if I do the procedure in the VC, all works fine, and the switches on the 2D panels are reflecting exactly the status of the switches in the VC.

Regards,

Hugo

Hi Loadman.

I have the 1.1 version. I follow the start sequence just as you discribe but I get a very strange start. I get nothing for a few seconds when I push the start button, then the engine leaps into life as if I had lit the blue touch paper? Very odd.

I've noticed several instances where it's stated the you put the Condition lever in the "air start" position to start the engines.  that's not right, you put them in the "run" position to start engines on the ground. Air start is for just that, starting them in the air, which does not use the starter button and positions the prop to turn from the air flow.