Wingless F4U Cutlass on ebay, well bought

rsv1cox wrote:E-Bay: Wen Mac Cutlass CL Model Airplane w/Throttle Pull Start Engine #163489127688



Always wanted one of these.  Had I known it would go this low I would have bid and built a wing.

I saw it too, was tempted, but then thought if I wanted to make one, I could do it all out of balsa and use one of my Sure Starts. Still have my rear engine Estes Cox Star Wars X-Wing and Y-Wing kits to build, so I let is slide.

Hard to find a Wen Mac with pull start and throttle in that good of condition. FWIW, I've never had any luck getting a glow plug Wen-Mac with exhaust collector to run worth a poot. (have tried to clean/re-work and run about three of them) I've got serious doubts about how flyable a Cutlass is too. (even with a good running engine)

All that said, I'd do the following with your find:

Take the engine out, finish cleaning it (do not disassemble beyond glow plug and back plate removal) oil it up and put it in the collection. Then use a proven Mark X, XI, XII, XIII or Testor-Mac runner to proceed with whatever flight trials you may decide to do.

Because of the milder power produced by the earlier Wen Macs, I haven't been so keen to consider them, especially when you add the complications of throttle.

The Golden Bees, R/C Bees, etc. I have no problem with. I've had great success with their exhaust restrictor throttles when used for RC, they are fool proof and worked every time.

Well, I must admit though that ....

my former supervisor wrote:You can make things foolproof, but not idiot proof, because idiots are so ingenious!

The Bee exhaust throttle of course is not idiot proof.