Ricksochet Running

Having finished up the rebuild, I decided to do a 'test run' on the engine. The engine was broke-in during the VERY cold Rexburg Winter, so it's going to take some adjusting to get it to run right. So tonight I took it out front, without the wing (don't want it taking off on me), staked the tail and got set.

First, I primed the needle valve by opening full-throttle, holding my thumb over the air intake and turning the prop a couple of times. It sucked fuel through the in-line and I pulled back to idle. I connected the glo-plug clip, put on my leather gloves, and flipped the prop around. Nothing. Flipped it again and it popped, maybe 2 or 3 times. Promising.

On the third finger flip (even without a chicken-stick), the engine kicked over and purred beautifully. I was ecstatic. The idle is set pretty low so I may need to adjust that a bit, but maybe with some fine-tuning I can get it set right.

Then I drove it around our parking lot for a bit. Just cause. I find that sudden throttle dogs a bit, and it wasn't blowing any smoke. I'm thinking it may be a bit lean. But then, due to the low idle, it died, and without a battery on hand to kick it over again with the power starter, I called it a night. It ran well-enough for me for tonight and I hope I can fly it this Saturday.