Support Your Local Engine - 2004/11

LAST MONTH I wrote about four-stroke model
engines and compared their many design, but few
operational, differences from two-stroke engines.
Throughout this series I have covered starting,
maintaining, and getting the most from your engine as
you run it, but in the real world, model engines require
support equipment to operate. I took this for granted in
previous installments, but this month I’ll cover onboard
and fueling equipment.

P r o d u c t R e v i e w - 2004/12

JUST WHAT THE model-aviation world needs: another Extra ARF.
If there are not yet a million such kits available, there soon will be.
From small 25-size Extra 300s to monsters that are nearly half the size
of the full-scale aircraft, most model manufacturers offer at least one
version of this popular and successful aerobatic airplane. There are
almost as many different Extra models as there are P-51 Mustang kits,
and there are a million of those. But maybe the situation is not entirely
as it appears.

From the Ground Up: Field Follies - 2005/01

Modern glow engines are so user-friendly that we only need to make
the glow plug glow and then find someway to rotate the engine to get it
started. With today’s industry and modelers’ imaginations being what
they are, there are roughly five million tools to perform each operation.
But we need someplace to house these millions of tools.
From 1970 to 1974, I housed all the field equipment I owned—a 2-
ounce turkey baster with a fuel line attached, a 1.5-volt battery with
alligator clips, a “chicken stick,” and some tools—in a brown paper bag.
However, the baster took five minutes to fuel a 16-ounce tank, the
battery was always dead, the alligator leads were constantly shorting out
against the engine’s head fins, and the chicken stick kept breaking the
wooden propellers. If everything was actually working, the bag would
rip open, spilling everything onto the ground.
I do not recommend such limited equipment to anyone, but, in truth,
it is all you actually need to get flying. Luckily there are better ways
today.

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