That all depends- not all people with glow or gas know how to tune their engines correctly. On aircraft glow engines we have to properly break-in the engine. Different makes takes a little longer than others to break-in, and if not done properly could not only damage the engine, but would also make the engine unreliable. ALL GLOW ENGINES MUST BE BROKEN-IN. DON'T BELIEVE WHAT THEY SAY AT THE MANUFACTURE!

For me once I adust my midrange, and get it just right where it doesn't stall out at the same time gives me a smooth rhythm, then I adjust my top end. Not once have I had to re-adjust my low or mid-range. Once that is set, I leave it alone.

Every time before I fly (first flight of the day) I have to adjust my top end needle a few clicks either to enrich or lean because every time the nose of the aircraft pitches up, it wants to lean out a little. However I only have to do it once for the whole day if done right. When the nose of the plane is pointed down it wants to run more rich. What I look for is that happy medium. No matter how I move the plane up or down, I can't hear much of a rpm difference. Some use a rpm gauge, I don't because I have a pretty good ear.

The reason why we have to adjust the high end is because every few days the barometric pressure changes including tempature. Each time it changes, we have to adjust the high end a little to compensate.

The big difference I know between a airplane glow engine and a car glow engine is the crankshaft and head design is different. The car engines are shorter in crankshaft length. Also the cooling fins on the head and cylinder are larger for the car because a car doesn't create the same type of speed like a aircraft does and needs the extra fins for cooling. Look at a helicopter engine and they are simular in design to the car engine ie helicopters don't usually fly at high rates of speed like a fixed wing aircraft does. Most like to hover with their helicopters except for the 3D helicopter pilots.

Every engine is designed for specific purposes. Most cars have a rope start, we have a hand held electric starter and place it on the nose cone or the end of the crankshaft. A rope start on a plane engine is not safe and kind of impractical.

A car engine can stall, but you'll always get your car back in one peice. A aircraft engine or helicopter glow engine stalls, we might not get it back in one peice, therefore I believe the engine that are designed for flight have a tighter tolerance and were designed more for dependability. That's a wild guess on my part but to me it would make sense.


Pete