Darren and Dave,

The way to get fuel out of the engine is to put a rag over the front inlet and tip it vertically, nose down, letting the fuel run out of the front. Tip it vertical - if you only tip it a little the fuel may run under the green cover. It's impossible to get all the fuel out of the back via the exhaust.

Starting any MW44, you should always take the engine slowly to full throttle and then down to idle to clear any buildup of fuel that may have accumulated in the case during the start. Failure to do this can cause the engine to flame out as you accelerate down the runway, because it suddenly picks up the extra fuel during the acceleration run and this disturbs combustion.

"Another new situation we found last night, was that we slowly shut the gas off, and after letting it sit at idle for a few seconds, went up towards full power. We got a lot of flaming and the temp rocketed. I quickly brought throttle back, and initiated shutdown.
Went for another start, and all was fine. We presume it was air in the line? "

It's not air, it's a buildup of fuel in the engine. Throttle up SLOWLY, as instructed above.

"If the fuel tap is left on, to get the fuel out, is it just a case of initiating the start proceedure, just without the gas on? "

No, that's a bad idea because you will blow the wet fuel into the exhaust area and when the engine starts it could ignite. Empty it as instructed above.

Mike Murphy
Wren Turbines Ltd