How to start-up a B-25 (4K RAW SOUND)

Hello, my name is Raymond. I'm one of the pilots of the Flying Bulls and together with Frederick, Frederick Handelman, we'll show you about how to prepare the aircraft, start up the engines and starting a flight into the beautiful landscape around Salzburg. We are here at the hangar 7 in Austria. That's actually our base where the airplane is getting prepared for the mission. So our great team of the ground ops is just caring about it, so they are getting it out of the warm hangar. Actually now during the winter the temperature is quite cold, so we try to keep her out at the minimum time to not cold soak her, which means it's getting torn out. Now they're refueling it and within 15-20 minutes we are able to start up the engines, which we will show you a little bit later. A little bit history about our B-25. Our B-25 was kind of ordered in 1944, so it has a 1944 number. It got delivered in 1945, so actually it came a bit late for the war, so it was never put in service in World War II. However, it was converted at that time already into an airplane to drive some electronic landings, so it was one of the first airplanes which was equipped with an autopilot and they tried to do automatic landings. This was in the late 40s, starting of the 50s, and I think it was in the late 50s it was put out of service of the US Air Force and it was converted at the time into a water bomber. It was flying around all over the states, was used for firefighting. This is another aspect, so from a bomber into a firefighter, so it served for helping people and we are proud about this chapter of our B-25. In the late 70s, our B-25 was flown over to Kansas and was flying at quite a couple of airshows as Fairfax Ghost at that time. It was a private club and they were very proud about this airplane and it served in Kansas until the late 90s and in the late 90s the decision was made because it went for sale at the time by Red Bull to buy a wonderful, beautiful airplane which is capable of getting some people on board, flying around, going to airshows and that's when the decision was taken at the time by C.E. Amara to buy this B-25. It was flown over, actually before it was restored with SL Aviation in Texas and after restoration in 97 it was flown over to Innsbruck at the time. At this late 90s actually the hangar was not existent at the Salzburg airport so everything was a little bit smaller than it is today so we had a couple of airplanes at Innsbruck staying in that hangar. It was the B-25, the Corsair T-28 and the Grumman Vision. So we joined this fleet of a small collection of historic airplanes at that time. Lots have changed. The collection of the flying bulls got much bigger. We got this hangar, hangar 7, hangar 8 and now of course it's still part of the fleet. So now we're getting prepared to start up the engine. Actually the engines. There's always a kind of decision if you're starting left first or right first so normally it doesn't care which one you're starting first. Normally as the flying pilot is sitting on left side you tend to start the left engine first because you have the better overview. Now we see actually an IFR flight so under instrument flight rules so we are programming the flight path into our GPS system. Normally if you're just flying VFR we'll do it after the engine start however this time we are getting the clearance putting everything in. And now it's getting time to start up. First we're checking if all the hatches are closed. We are running through the checklist which you're going to hear just now. Checked. Normal. Emergency brake pressure. Checked. Hydraulic level. Checked. Fuel crossfit. Off. It's off. Landing gear emergency pump. Stowed. Emergency hydraulic selector. Normal. Emergency brake levers. Down. Superchargers. Low. Carb filter. Normal. Carb air. Cold. Boost pumps. Off. And fuel shutoff. Is open here. Two times open. Pump clip. Is removed. Hatches. All closed. Gas block. Is released. Parking brake. Set. And brake pressure. Set. Strims. Landing gear. Is down and latched. Flaps. Are neutral at least. Flaps. Open my side. Open my side. Mixture. Is oil cutter. Props. Go forward. Throttles. Cracked open. Ignition master. Is on. Ignition. Off. Multimeters. 10, 18, 14, 13. Yeah. Many cold pressure. For me it was 29. Switches. Engine start would be next. Batteries. Voltage is good. Now what you see is the fire test. That's quite important to do. There are two compartments. Test switch. The light's now just coming on. So which says this is working. Normally if you see a light during flight you might get a little bit nervous but you have to follow it in the checklist and just go through the procedure. There's fire extinguisher on each side. You will use them so in case you really have a fire but you have to test the system of course. Open. Now we continue on the checklist. Pumps. So now we are going to start the right engine first. Very important to get a signal by the ground crew. It's turning and now just enjoy the beautiful sound of those right engine. It's time to check some items. Most important is the oil pressure. You're sure there's some oil pressure there and as well as the hydraulic system. Now we are going to start the left engine. You're counting the props. As it's turning on number three prop you're engaging the primer which is getting some fuel into the cylinders. At six you're engaging the ignition which means now the engine should come running. So everything is running. We have hydraulic pressure which means we are sure about the brakes. Ground tops could leave with their fire extinguisher which is always present just in case. And now we're getting ready for taxi. It's a beautiful shape. You are adjusting a little bit the mixture especially if it's cold. It's always running a little bit rich and you're manually leaning the mixture which normally makes the engines run a little bit smoother. Engaging the NAVFATE GPS. Now we are putting the flight plan in. This time we are doing a check ride. Frederick Handelman, my colleague, he's the flying pilot and I'm a kind of check pilot just checking him on different procedures which means this time we are doing engine out procedures. So we're reducing sometimes the power on an engine to simulate an engine failure and just running through the checklist and through the procedures which you normally do on an engine failure. Normally this is done on a simulator of course for a B25 there's no simulator existent so we have to do it on the airplane which is always a challenge and it's very important to train it from time to time to be really sharp on those procedures once a real engine failure or fire should happen. So Frederick is getting ready so he's just doing the breathing on the departure and yeah I'm switching the headphones on and running through the checklist again. Now it seems we have hydraulic pressure everything is running smooth. Signal to remove the jogs and we're ready to taxi. So Frederick is checking the flight controls, the rudders. There we go. It's a beautiful shape and it's always nice. The B25 is not easy to taxi because the nozzle is not steerable so you always have to use differential power and differential braking. The brakes are on the main hydraulic system so there's always a little bit of time lag so we be very cautious about getting into the brakes. You see Frederick is doing a perfect taxiing completely lined up and now it's time to just taxi down to the holding point. Now it's taking some time of course until the engines are warm enough. It's a chilly day so we have around minus 10 degrees centigrade at Salzburg and so it's taking at least five to seven eight minutes until the engines are warm enough and we have checked all the parameters and now we are already lining up on the runway to start the takeoff. We have done a briefing about this and now if we are advancing the throttle it's getting extremely loud so we are relying on hand signals now for gear up and flaps up. So the airplane is accelerating, it's getting airborne. First thing is to gain a little bit more speed and we check the gear. Speed is going to increase. Very important is the critical speed. Anything before the critical speed the airplane is uncontrollable. If you have an engine failure the other engine will turn you around in a direction you don't want to go. So the only solution to that is to do a re-landing. However so once you're passing 126 knots you're safe even if you should have an engine failure. You continue the takeoff and we have a certain altitude we are reducing the power to METO power which is maximum power except takeoff. First turn to the right as this is an AFO procedure and reducing the power to CLIMB power which is this airplane 34 inches and 2400 rpm. Beautiful weather. First procedure turn to the right. We are flying a little bit north east of Salzburg into the beautiful landscape around Salzburg. Yes so Frederik and me were very happy to have had you on board. I hope you enjoyed this startup procedure and the takeoff by our beautiful P-25 and we are very much looking forward to have you on board soon again and until then bye for now.