ORIGINAL: flyinfool1
It is not the cost of the gas and glow plugs that I am concerned with.
I am after reliability and simplicity.
The kero start is definitely more simple than the gas start.
Not that the gas really complex it is just one extra step and one more piece of needed equipment to haul around, store and keep in stock.
Jeff,
My P-60 was my first turbine and the reasons you give were the exact reasons I decided to get the P-60 with the kero start. Turns out that reliability is questionable and unless you make sure to keep a spare $kero igniter$ in your tool box all the time, your day of flying could be ruined. It's a little easier on the pocket to keep a few glow plugs in the tool box. I don't know about the starting sequence for the bigger engines but the P-60 takes about seventy seconds to start on the Kero start and when I switched it over to gas it takes about fifteen and it also sucks a larger amount of current out of your ECU battery. The p-60 also spits out a fair amount of flames on startup with the kero start. Something to be aware of if you have an external under the fuse setup like I have on my Reaction. JMO.
Marty