The weekend is here and so I'll get someone to hold the camera and film my feeble attempts to run this thing and keep it under control. Maybe I'll jump again when it gets up on step..
I found out that the engine's needle valve vibrated out once I got to top RPM. That explains why I had control of the mixture up until then, but once it got to full boogie I couldn't back the remote needle out enough to drop the RPM, so I quickly yanked the fuel line. I had opened it up wide, but apparently did not crank the jam not down tightly enough. Lesson number.. um.. lost track.
The amazing part, is that I got out of my hands and knees on the deck and crawled around in the sunflower seed husks and the firewood and other crud on the deck , and miraculously found it in about 15 seconds. Luck yes, but I plotted a tracectory backwards from the test stand to the woodpile, and got down to look. Phew.. $10 needle valve, but I have to get it from far far away…