Get them hooked young!

I might have started 4 people on the CL journey this weekend (maybe even a couple more too). Talk about fun. My man-win trainer had HOURS of crash time on it, with probably over 100 restarts with few problems. (Go rubber ducky prop!). There was even some good quality beginner flying happening, running the baby stunt bee tank out!

I found there is a point where too much dirt is in the engine and flushing the back of the engine then pulling the needle and flushing through the threaded needle hole on a tanked bee revives the engine back to single flip starts. (2 3/4 turns out of Sig Champion 25%)

An unusually large percentage of starts are, of course, backwards. I suspect because for every forward run there is a flight attempt, but multiple reverse starts are stopped, skewing the count. The no-drag spring starter helps but is not perfect proof against reverse starting.

Now a little help: I had a reoccurring problem (besides dirt and grass clippings). The head would keep coming loose. There were a lot of starts between, but even tightening, bench, re-tighten while hot did not make the head stay on tight for the entire session (about 4 hours yesterday, and similar today) I had to re-tighten every hour or so.

I also had a problem that shut me down a little early today (we were going to run the last of the syringe through, so 3-5 more flights, then pack it up, not a big loss of time). The engine acted like no compression, no pop either. The head was loose and was tightened. Then the engine acted under-compressed compared to prior to this two day marathon run. (I don't remember if it is a newer piston cylinder set or not) I could not get a start. I could not get a pop. It was the same set of 3 D batteries that I ran last YEAR. Could day of hard flying and many restarts drain a few 'D' batteries?

Sadly I only got 3 flights in myself, although I truly enjoyed myself.

Phil