Hehe, enjoy!
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Is anyone else having trouble starting the aircraft cold and dark on Xbox? Following both the checklist and the tablet checklist, I cannot get the engines to start?
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I haven’t used the p-38 in a couple of updates. The yippee livery, the red one, used to be Bright red and shiny like a new car, now it is dull and the colour is more washed out. Or am I having a Mandela effect?
Yes, I am. I’m not an idiot and I do know what I’m doing before anyone says so lol, but I can’t get it to start either.
Ok, not just me then. I’ll see if anyone else has reported the problem on their Discord.
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Okay so… I have managed to start them. It just seems very… fiddly. But, part of the charm I guess. May be a considerable amount of trial and error involved here haha.
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I have no idea how it works on XBox (do you use the thumbstick(s) to move a cursor?). But generally, prime the engine per the manual based on OAT - ~3-4 seconds seems to be the sweet spot for flying around Honolulu, for instance. The tooltip will tell you if you’re under-, over-, or correctly primed. Better to under-prime t and then add a second or two than over-prime and have to wait 10 minutes. 
After priming one engine, click the STARTER and hold ~5 seconds or so unti you hear the flywheel has spun up, then immediately click and hold the START switch for the engine. Should fire up pretty easily. Once it’s running, repeat the process for the second engine.
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I had a look around the FlyingIron website but couldn’t see any download links to manuals. It’d be nice if they made those available for Xbox users as all the startup stuff is covered there. I’d upload them myself but wanna do so without permission, copyrighst and all that.
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I’m probably just being an idiot, in truth. It seems fiddly compared to others but probably just some practice needed.
No doubt it is a bit tricky but it’s not really FlyingIron’s “fault” so much as the fact of the way the P-38’s switches work: two-way switches that move up and down, which you HAVE to use to start the engines. That’s hard to implement in a sim using a mouse with click spots.
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Can I ask what you did to get them started?
Both the Starter and the Energiser, react differently to the same input for me, when selected, the RT button can cause the right starter to be selected and then the exact same input can cause the left starter to be selected the next time. The same goes for the energiser.
I hear the flywheel spin but I don’t seem to get any further than that even if I have, by luck, managed to select the same Starter and Energiser.
Be careful with your cursor - clicking above the switch moves it UP, clicking below the switch moves it DOWN. The directions affect which engine is being energized/started.
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I used the tablet to check the engines were primed (primer switch has to go down, not up) then engage switch for a few seconds, then the starter. It’s definitely fiddly but that’s characteristic of the spitfire too I’ve found, and of WW2 era aircraft in general. As I say, I think I just need a lot more practice haha.
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Feeling a little dumb when starting it, but hey, what a beauty! (Xbox Series X).
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Thankyou for everyone’s replies on starting the aircraft! I’ll have to try them later, thanks again.
Same haha, and I’m very far from being a newbie with this, but it did take me quite a few tries.
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Jesus this thing is good. Knocked it out of the park, again. The Spitfire is excellent but this is just that little bit better. Feels heavy and robust. And that start up noise… wow.
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Glad my recommendation paid off! Phew…
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For starting this glorious bird. If you can’t do the keybind to Starter (hold) mentioned much further up in this thread. The Engage and Start switches are movable in either direction. Click-Hold-Drag the switch and even though it goes down, keep dragging forward till the switch moves forward. This can take your cursor pretty far away from the switch. You can actually move the switches forward and back on a single Click-Drag action. It’s just slow to react and the zones for forward and back are pretty far apart. Takes some practice. I’ve been flying this almost daily now. It’s just so smooth in flight and landing now.