Fire Breathing Metro

[Captain Morgan]

Last night I pulled onto the Mercury Ramp at ATL and there was a Metro taxiing out with one engine operative. As it passed me when I was taxiing in, it started the left engine and flames shot out the back of the engine! It then took off shortly after, so I suppose everything was fine. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen. Is this normal for a Metro, or was something burning up?

 

[fokkers&beer]

You should see an F27 light up. Not only does it consistantly shoot a 3 foot flame out the back it can spit fireballs on the ground and catch tires on fire. And who says Can Annular burner cans are'nt cool.

 

[mar]

'Taint normal

I flew the Metro for about 3000 hours.

On start you should just see a little neat puff of white smoke.

A flame out the tail pipe would concern me.

 

[V2plus25]

Hehe, you said Annular

 

[DirtyBeech]

what you probably saw was the start fuel enrishment valve doing its thing. it takes fuel from the high pressure fuel pump, bypasses the fcu, and opens and closes repeatedly during start up to assist in acceleration of the engine. once the start is completed and the engine is running above 60% then the sfe valve stops it's operation. the effect is at night you will actually see the fireball pulsing back and forth inside the exhaust ducting as the sfe valve adds fuel to the fire. pretty neat really.

ofcourse, you might have seen the pilot accidentally activate the JAWI pumps on startup.

 

[PC12Cowboy]

jawi pumps?????

 

[Lucky13]

Hmmm......My Metro doesn't have JAWI pumps.

DirtyBeech may have the right idea, but it also could be that the Metro in questoin is in need of a lil work. I have seen that before and have been told that it's due to fuel ending up in the tail pipe after shut down. It can be worse if the pilot doesn't spin the props. Reguardless its nothing to worry about.

Did he mean CAWI or AWI pumps? j/k

 

[fokkers&beer]

The Rolls Royce dart will spit more flame when its in need of a BURNER WIPE. Yes I said Burner wipe, you know when they get the big pipe cleaners and clean out the Can Annular burner cans. 1950's technology is cool.

 

[DirtyBeech]

if the flame was coming out of the tailpipe then i have no clue what that was other than a bad thing.

JAWI- ya know, when someone accidentally fills the awi storage container with jet fuel, and then that storage container is emptied into your AWI tank. makes for an impressive show, but real short engine life.

 

[Lucky13]

So that's what JAWI is. Sounds like the SRL would be working over time if that happened!