A first

We get our mission orders. I'm sitting on the airfield and hit the 'E' key to start my engine, and the engine blows and flashes a yellowish color for about 3 seconds like it's on fire. It won't restart.
Have any of you ever experienced this? It's a first for me.

Seems like one of the random engine failures. Well, you have the luck to live another day for sure

Could be. But I suggest switch Off engine. Set mixture to füll euch, throttle to 10 percent. Restart the engine.

Safe on the ground is where I prefer my engine failures.

Welcome to the world of WWI. Random engine failures are in and sometimes more deadly - all helps to give you a slight nervous twitch WOFF fliers sometimes have ...

Me too. It's better than having it happen across the lines and trying to make it to safe ground. I just never thought it would happen at takeoff.