Quote:
Originally Posted by ausastronomer
Hi Richard,
, having the same, or very similar engines to the P3.
Cheers,
John B
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That is correct,same Engine....T56 Allison Turbine ( has a 14 stage Axial Flow Compressor ). Myself and 2 other Airman ( apart from the Senior Engineers ) were allowed to start the Aircraft's APU... I had to sit for an exam to do this ( small turbine onboard the Aircraft, located on left hand underside, basically right under the pilots seat...cut a long story short, once the APU came online, all instruments / Avionics etc came to life and the cockpit looked like a Christmas Tree.
Safety was strict....2 Airman outside the front of the Aeroplane with 2 big fire bottles at the ready in case a fire ensured . I would sit in the Pilots seat with headphones and have direct contact with another ground crew member via head phones.
I remember feeling like a ' big shot ' then
cause all I had to do was make sure all generators were running correctly and fuel pump valves were open and various switch's were configured and ' hit ' number 1 Engine start button
...I would have been ' charged ' with unauthorized engine start, and I think they would think of something else to, and I'd been assigned to sweeping the runway with a tooth brush for the next 6 months.
Col...