*disclaimer*
I posted this on the MU2 forum to alert the MU2 community of my discovery and wanted all BT'rs to know of this important issue as well.

Since I am a relative “newbie” to the MU2 community I am able to learn and take away much more than I can contribute at this point. However, this past Wednesday I learned something about the MU2 that I feel I simply must share. I flew to Arkansas to pick up a couple that I was returning to Houston for Angel Flight. I landed and met the passengers and fortunately for me, I had flown this couple before and they were comfortable with me. We loaded up and prepared to startup and everything was going great and normal . The right engine spooled up and lit off no problem. I hit the bleed switch and at the exact moment I moved the ground/safe switch from right to left, the engine shut down. Perplexed and a bit confused as to how moving that switch shut down my engine, I begin to wonder if I had done it too quickly and somehow interrupted the start sequence. I checked the EGT and it was a bit over 200 degrees so I asked the line guy to spin the prop for a minute to get the temp down so I could restart. 2nd attempt, no light off. RPM gets to around 20-25% and nothing. Temps aren’t rising either…hmmm I must have broken something. I won’t go into details about the next 3 start attempts and what my mind was thinking about getting the ground crew to swap GPU’s and battery starts and the other things that are frankly at this point really embarrassing, but I will say that I made two calls to some very helpful MU2 guys that attempted to walk me through the possible issues. In the meantime, I had the passengers disembark and wait outside while I assured them everything was fine. So now I’m back in the pilot seat alone, no GPU and on the phone with an MU2 guru when suddenly I spy the BIG RED MAIN FUEL CUTOFF VALVE switches. They are in a, shall I say non-standard configuration better known as “OFF”. I tell my MU2 guru that I will have to call him back later and politely hang up the phone with no further deliberation. I retrieve my passengers who at this point cant bee too excited about getting aboard but much to my surprise are more than ready to go after a 45 minute delay. The rest of the trip was normal and enjoyable with the exception of the pain I felt in my rear end from the butt kicking I have not been able to stop giving myself.

Needless to say, I felt inclined to alert all of my fellow MU2 pilots this earthshattering and breaking news that your planes WILL NOT START WITH THE MAIN FUEL CUTOFF VALVES IN THE OFF POSITION.

Regards,

James

So how did it get in the "off" position?

My normal procedure is to turn them off before turning the ignition key off. Once the ignition key is off, I flip them back on so that they open next time I turn the ignition key on.

There are a few switches in the Mu2 I do not touch.
If this is contrary to the spirit and intent of the SFAR... so be it.

The Red Main Fuel Valve switches are one of the switches I never touch, except *to test regularly* to make sure they would work.

I personally think they contributed to at least one accident.

Yes and sometimes that valve fails and it's a fun time to change it!

Those switches are in a %#$@ position. Here's the deal- and I got this from Reese- don't EVER move the fuel tank selector switches at the same time. EVER. You lose one because you grab the wrong switch, eh, so what. You restart or land (and you best holding 150 to the outer marker, after which time you best not mess with any switches; focus on landing).

I shut one off dirty in the landing configuration at 140 once with the fuel switch to see what that was like. No biggie. At 120, it's a little more interesting. Normal rules apply: airspeed is life. If you're slow, you'd better be ready to land. That includes not messing with switches.

James

Good write-up, those switches are scary, all the more in the air.

Many credibly argued that Inhofe inadvertently turned BOTH off on his first solo and fatal flight into Tulsa. One of the MU2 instructors that I met at that time was going to develop a guard to cover those switches. Not sure if that has ever been done and if really necessary... as long as you abide by the checklist and verify that what your brain thinks it is going to move corresponds with what is in your hand.

Hilgard

There are guards available now for those switches.

I don't touch them. They are too close to the fuel transfer switches. The transfer switches are common on/off type where the main fuel valve switches are gated and require you to pull them in order to change positions.