How to start the AIRBUS EC135 Helicopter

Hello and welcome to this AB Helicopters video. Today we're going to have a look at how to start the Airbus or Eurocopter EC135 helicopter and we're going to do this using the Aerofly FS simulator on mobile devices. So first of all the internal checks, well you make sure that all the circuit breakers are in, all the switches are in the right position and the road brake is definitely off. On the instrument panel you've got to make sure that all the instruments are reading correctly, the clock is correctly wound and set to the correct time and all the other switches are in the normal off positions. Further down you're looking at the centre console, make sure the nav foot equipment is all off, that the collective switches are in the off position, the throttles are neutral and the collective is locked. Now we're going to go for the startup procedure. So first of all the battery master switch goes on and you then look at the triple tacho which you can just see rotating the three needles going round. At this stage you'd expect to hear the low rpm warning horn which you could reset either by pressing the reset button on the CAD or by hitting the red switch on the cyclic. We're now going to go up to the overhead panel and test the fire warning switches. So looking up to the top and you can see the fire ew switch. Now obviously in a simulator it's quite hard to move the switches and simultaneously look at the gauges but for each side of the system you're looking for fire extinguisher test on the CAD and the fire 1 or fire 2 warning unit light to illuminate. So the final test on the overhead switch panels is the warning unit and the CDS test. So we'd move that switch to the warning unit first and you'd expect the whole warning unit to illuminate and a warning gong to be audibly heard and then you go to the CDS switch position and all of the screens would then illuminate the test. Unfortunately we can't really see that whilst looking up so we'll move on to the next stage which is priming the engines. Both the system 1 and system 2 fuel primes should now be on and on the CAD you'd expect fuel pressure caution indication to go up. We're now going to make sure that the strobe lights are on to illuminate to make sure that everyone knows that we're about to start the engine and we're checking we've got sufficient voltage on the CAD so we need at least 24 volts. We've got enough fuel all the frequencies are in as required and the cyclic stick is centralized. We're now going to turn on each fadex. So we'll do the number one first you can see it's sweeping the full arc of the gauge and secondly on fadex two. You'd also expect to see a number of indications on the CAD. We're now ready for engine start so this is a fadex engine so we don't actually have to do anything other than move the engine selector switch from the off to idle position. We first need to make sure we've got a rotor guard posted the area is clear and during the start process we need to monitor the n1 increase the tot rise to about 720 degrees and check that the engine oil pressure increases and the blade start to spin. Once the n1 gets to around 70 percent and the idle indication will illuminate and we are good for a second engine start but whilst we're doing that or before we start the second engine we'll do the hydraulic test. Again hard to see but you would move the hydraulic test switch to system one and check that the hydraulic pressure system two indication came up on the CAD and then move the cyclic and the collective and the pedals around to make sure that the controls still move and then likewise do the hydraulic test switch move it to the system two position and look for a hydraulic pressure system one indication on the CAD. From this point we're now good for a second engine start. Again the engine selector switch from off to idle and monitor n1 oil pressure and the tot. With the phalanx system you can actually move both engine switches immediately to idle and the system will automatically start both in sequence. Once the second engine is at idle we can go ahead and turn on our avionic master switches up above our inverter switch on our pitot heater switch for one and two for the co-pilot and the pilot the fuel transfer pumps they both go on and the prime pumps go off. Make sure that our position lights are on and any internal lights that we're looking for say our PAX cargo lights for example we want to turn those on and emergency exit lights if we have them fitted. Back down to our instrument panel and we are making sure that all of our instruments are correctly set and on. Our standby horizon we need to cage to make sure it's level so we'll pull the knob out to re-center it. Next up take both of our engines to flight setting you'd also use this opportunity to close those red guards that prevent you from accidentally switching off the engines in flight. Now make sure that the torque is matched you need to make sure the autopilot is on say AP on and make sure the auto trim is also enabled so when the light goes off you know the system is then operational and then you're just checking to make sure that all of the warning unit and the CAD is clear of any indications. In our case because it's only about 15 degrees outside we're going to go ahead and get some air and some bleed heating going for the cabin. Next as you pull into the hover you'll check that your N2 and NR your right speed instrument is at 100 to 103 percent the FLI meters are matched and reading the sensible parameters and obviously double checking that there are no warning units or CAD indications after you're in the hover. So there you have it that's how to get an Airbus EC135 helicopter started. If you've got any questions please leave them in the comment section below and hopefully you found this useful don't forget to subscribe to look out for other useful aviation content and until next time fly safe!