by Keith » Mon Sep 10, 2012 9:37 am
Brings back memories. I had some of those diesel engines. I had a Russian one. It looked terrible. The roughest casting ever but had heaps of power. Hard to start and get the head compression right to keep it going. But once it warmed up it was great. Touching the prop or rather not touching it was all part of the fun. Never hurt much, until you got home. I will admit though I always used a 'chicken finger'. I saw one guy get hurt one time though. He actually stopped the engine when his hand went too close. The blade cut him seven times before it stopped. Then guys started showing up with a big battery and an electric starter. You needed a spinner on your engine to use one of them though. Then RC started showing up and flight boxes with a battery inside and lots of plugs a sockets for the add ons. Can you believe they even had a socket to pump fuel into the plane. Mine you it saved a lot of fuel and was safer smoking while you started the motor. I think we all smoked in them days. Then I got my first RC unit. A box with an antenna sticking out and a button. A wind up actuator and once for left, twice for right and the amount of fuel you put in looked after the up and down.... sigh.
If anyone is feeling a bit paranoid....BEHIND YOU....