Perform a thorough visual inspection of your turbine and ensure that there are no cracks, dents, dings or warping on any part of the engine. Take special care to ensure that there is absolutely no damage to the blades, as they will be spinning at high speed and any defect will lead to a catastrophic failure.
Have your safety partner stand to the side of the engine and about 30 to 40 feet away, depending on your engine requirements. He is there to ensure that no people or property could be sucked into the intake or damaged by the exhaust.
Place the spool/ignition switch to start, once you have the all-clear from your partner. This will begin spooling the engine and activate the igniters.
Lift the fuel/start levers once the engine reaches approximately 20 percent of maximum speed, depending on your manual. This will introduce fuel and begin the ignition process. Watch your temperature and rotation speed gauges very carefully at this point. One of three things will happen .
1. You will see a normal start, indicated by temperature and speed accelerating to just below maximum, followed by a settling of speed and temperature to around 40 to 50 percent of maximum. If so skip to Step 7.
2. You will see a hot start, indicated by a spike of temperature over the maximum. This means the fire is now starting to burn the engine. Skip to Step 5.
3. You will see a hung start. This is where the spooling continues but there is no ignition, indicated by continuous spooling around 20 percent and no increase in temperature. Skip to Step 6.
Move the fuel/start lever to cut off immediately, and continue to spool for the time indicated in your manual. Usually this is longer than 10 but less than 30 seconds. Inspect for damage and wait the appropriate cooling time before attempting restart.
Cut off the spool/ignition and fuel/start levers and wait an appropriate amount of time before attempting restart.
Continue with normal operation if a normal start occurs. Congratulations. Make sure that the ignition switch goes to the home or normal mode. It will depend on your engine. Usually with a starter/generator system you will switch over to electrical generator mode. When ready to shut down the engine, just cut off the fuel levers and the engine will quit.
