Post 37, and I’m not saying its right wrong bad or good, says....
A wet start is when the pilot starts the engine by starting the fuel flow and hitting the igniters, but the fuel does not light up and both pools in the engine and comes out the tailpipe. When the pilot sees that the EGT does not rise, they stop, and the fuel must be dissipated by various means before another start is attempted.
The writer mixed up the order of the fuel and ignitors. Normally you would have the turbine spinning above 12% with ignitors firing, then introduce fuel.
My point, is that if someone wanted to induce a wet start “to be funny”, they would mess with the start sequence. Probably adding fuel before proper engine speed (about 12%) may do it. Some airplanes used to do similar things on shutdown, kind of a backfire.
I’m just saying that in those days, NATOPS wasn’t followed as religiously as in subsequent decades. Doing funny things was more common.
Again, I wasnt there. So I have to default that he did NOT start the fire.
And by the way, you are correct. The fuel control sending fuel and sparking takes place simultaneously after the correct RPM was reached. In my haste, to type, that didn’t come out correctly!