The books were always on the too expensive side for me in the days gone by, much of the info I gathered was from the plans in kits, my library didn't have many books on modeling. somewhere in my pile of miss placed things is tons of data on how to build retracts. close doors, throttle engines, etc. yesterday I was reading texted I down loaded it contained just about every subject you could think of including making your own fuel.
The older text I have on the theory of flight is fun to read because it is wrong but well written.
Those guys in post 11205 trying to fly while it snowed is what I did a long time ago, that type of dedication is seldom seem now days. we set the engine on fire to get it hot enough to run.