Starter assembly and methods for starting a combustion engine

A turbine air starter assembly, comprising:

• a housing defining an interior with an air inlet and an air outlet defining a flow path through the housing;
• a rotatable turbine located within the flow path within the interior;
• a controllable pressure valve located upstream from the rotatable turbine;
• a rotatable pinion gear rotatably coupled with the rotatable turbine, wherein the rotatable pinion gear extends exteriorly of the housing and operably coupling to a combustion engine;
• a torque sensor providing a torque output indicative of a torque experienced by the rotatable pinion gear;
• and
• a controller module configured to:
• during a start sequence of the combustion engine, monitor a speed parameter indicative of a rotational speed of the turbine air starter assembly and a torque parameter indicative of a torque of the turbine air starter assembly;
• determine whether the monitored speed parameter exceeds a start sequence speed profile and whether the monitored torque parameter exceeds a predetermined torque threshold indicative of causing damage to the rotatable pinion gear of the turbine air starter;
• and
• in response to determining the monitored speed parameter does not exceed the start sequence speed profile and the monitored torque parameter does not exceed the predetermined torque threshold, controllably increasing the rotational speed of the turbine air starter by the controller module such that the increasing prevents the monitored torque parameter from satisfying predetermined torque threshold.