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I had one of these as a kid! I could never get the "glow plug" engine to actually fire up, though, so I was never able to fly it. Sounds like I missed out on a spectacular crash.
glow plugs are pretty easy to start - stupid question, but you did have a big battery to power the plug?
To this day I have scarred fingers from playing with these model engines.
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbureted_compression_ignit...
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from the article it seems it's not a true "glow plug" heating element like one may use to start a diesel engine. my impression was the engine is so small the radiant heat of the engine is what causes the fuel to ignite in the chamber - seems tough to start cold
diesels don't have a glow plug. a glow plug has a radiant coil that ignites the fuel, and then the heat of the engine keeps it firing, which is different from diesel fuel.a diesel engine depends on heating the fuel via compression with the energy being provided by the human flicking it. there is no battery input to a model aero diesel engine. a car diesel engine uses a starter motor to provide the initial compression…
Automotive diesel glow plugs do not ignite the fuel; they lower the required compression in cold weather by warming up the air going into the combustion chamber.
They're not the same things as glow plugs found in methanol-fueled model engines, which also do not ignite the fuel directly, but serve as a catalyst so the methanol can combust via compression instead of electric ignition.
When talking about glow plugs, it's important to specity the sort you're talking about and the context in which your discussion is taking place.
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Or a missing finger. Those things are pretty nasty to get going without a starter motor. Some of them come with a spring loaded starter, those are a little bit safe, but the ones that you start manually are really nasty. edit: Hah, that's actually mentioned in the article.
it won't cut off your finger, but it will hurt!
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/member.php?u=60153
Really, the mechanical integrity of the motor/plane mount and everything else comes into play when the thing starts up and if you're not treating it with all of the respect that it deserves you can get hurt very badly. I used to live right next door to a model airfield and more than one person left that field with serious injuries from spinning props. Starting them is the most obvious moment when things are dangerous but then the speed is still quite low, once they rev up you are much better off not to be in front of them or in the plane of rotation.
Electrics aren't much safer. These models are nothing short of amazing but the safety issues are very often overlooked and minimized.
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diesels don't have a glow plug. a glow plug has a radiant coil that ignites the fuel, and then the heat of the engine keeps it firing, which is different from diesel fuel.a diesel engine depends on heating the fuel via compression with the energy being provided by the human flicking it. there is no battery input to a model aero diesel engine. a car diesel engine uses a starter motor to provide the initial compression…
Just about every single automotive diesel engine sold since the 1950s is equipped with glow plugs, so the above post might be confusing. Automotive diesel glow plugs do not ignite the fuel; they lower the required compression in cold weather by warming up the air going into the combustion chamber. They're not the same things as glow plugs found in methanol-fueled model engines, which also do not ignite the fuel direc…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just about every single automotive diesel engine sold since the 1950s is equipped with glow plugs, so the above post might be confusing. Automotive diesel glow plugs do not ignite the fuel; they lower the required compression in cold weather by warming up the air going into the combustion chamber. They're not the same things as glow plugs found in methanol-fueled model engines, which also do not ignite the fuel direc…
i admit i am not an expert on modern auto diesels (i remember my brother muttering about having problems with this on his Merc). but 1960's model diesel engines did not require a battery to start them.
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it won't cut off your finger, but it will hurt!
It can do much worse... https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/member.php?u=60153 Really, the mechanical integrity of the motor/plane mount and everything else comes into play when the thing starts up and if you're not treating it with all of the respect that it deserves you can get hurt very badly. I used to live right next door to a model airfield and more than one person left that field with serious injuries from spinnin…
The minibee ? Microbee? I can’t remember what the engine was called was so small!
I still love the smell of castor oil to this day.
If you built one from a guillows kit, it really was more emotionally painful when it crashed than anything else.
The little engines were really pretty safe - even hand starting with a stick.
Once you got to an 0.25 or a 0.46 you might have a bad time.
My favorite plane though, wasn’t control line, it was actually a much much much later hanger 9 alpha. Technically a trainer. But I put a much larger engine on it. (Though the evolution .60 on it was amazing in an Escapade .40 …) (Actually the escapade .40 might be a good second…)
I still have a control line somewhere… though I think it was cloth covered.