Hello good people of the Piper Forums!
I fly a Piper Dakota. It's been a great plane.
When cold starting, I use 5 primer squirts and then I start it without delay and it reliably starts with 2 or 3 prop turns.
When I have to shut down to fuel up after flying, and then restart it again (within 5 minutes or so) it's no problem.
I don't usually fly somewhere for lunch, for example, where I come back an hour later to start it up, but I did today and it absolutely would not start. I left it for a couple more hours and then came back to it....4 primes - no luck...tried again a couple of times...then 3 primes and it started right up. I think I was trying it way too lean.
My question is - how long does your plane have to sit before you use your typical cold start procedure (including primes)?
45 minutes?
2 hours?
6 hours?
I was in 50-60 degree temperatures.
When I was trying after 45-60 minutes after flying, my exhaust pipes were cool and I could hold my hand on the warm engine block. It wasn't "hot", but it wasn't totally cold either.
Thank you!
I fly a Piper Dakota. It's been a great plane.
When cold starting, I use 5 primer squirts and then I start it without delay and it reliably starts with 2 or 3 prop turns.
When I have to shut down to fuel up after flying, and then restart it again (within 5 minutes or so) it's no problem.
I don't usually fly somewhere for lunch, for example, where I come back an hour later to start it up, but I did today and it absolutely would not start. I left it for a couple more hours and then came back to it....4 primes - no luck...tried again a couple of times...then 3 primes and it started right up. I think I was trying it way too lean.
My question is - how long does your plane have to sit before you use your typical cold start procedure (including primes)?
45 minutes?
2 hours?
6 hours?
I was in 50-60 degree temperatures.
When I was trying after 45-60 minutes after flying, my exhaust pipes were cool and I could hold my hand on the warm engine block. It wasn't "hot", but it wasn't totally cold either.
Thank you!
