ORIGINAL: vertical grimmace
...Kind of funny now when I am at the flying field (I fly mostly giant scale warbirds now with gas engines) , I still have an aversion to an electric starter. The RC guys just do not understand that we used to practice our pitting and engine starting procedures. Electric starters are not allowed in many events. They just look at me like I am crazy!
In the early CL days there where no starters that I knew of. The K&B 35 sometimes liked to whack my finger. I have gone back to using chicken stick on 2 cycle engines. Pump enough fuel to the engine (it needs to sound a little sloppy) and it will start with a few flips. Hand starting can prevent damage to a hard to find scale spinner. I haven't been as successful with 4-strokes, although I'm sure it can be done successfully.