Ralph,

I felt I had to respond to one comment of yours and just straighten the story out a little bit.

[QUOTE]I think most of the problem was that we all got used to Rei's way of fixing stuff for us. Most of the time a lot of US would get repairs or fixes for free. I know of a great Jet modeler who wanted an Upgrade on his Air Start 750 at Superman Last year so they took a Brand New RAM 1000 apart and stuffed it on his plane, not only did they give him all the stuff, but RAM personnel spend the whole day stuffing the engine into the plane. When the fuel pump later got clogged and he had to purchase a new one he had a temper problem and slammed RAM.[/ QUOTE]


I think you may be talking about Vernon Montgomery's F-4 here. Let's talk about this for a minute to give some folks the whole picture. Vernon had a 1000 airstart in it (actually he had quite a few they kept blowing up) he had a compressor wheel come apart mid June and sent the engine in for repairs. It came back and was installed in his airplane before we went to Michigan Jets. We were starting the engine for the first run since it got back from RAM for repairs. The engine did not even finish ramping up before it came to an abrupt stop. I took the airstart 1000 out of my Bandit and put my spare 750 in my Bandit. He sent the engine in for repairs. He also around this same time got back his 750 from RAM, this was the one that caught on fire mid air and burned his Bandit up. (The fuel fittings in the front of the engine had worked their way loose, no locktite, unfortunate but it happens.) I put this 750 on his Bobcat and we took that to Superman. On the first run up as it was ramping up it belched flames and almost burned the airplane up. Scratch another engine fresh back from the factory. He has still not yet installed the 1000 in his Phantom so we install it on the Bobcat. On the 5th start we get the same thing, we had also noticed a slight vibration in the previous starts and runups and were told that it was ok. I fueled the airplane myself each time so I KNOW that the valve was shut and the engine was not full of fuel, so rule out flooded engine wet start. We took that engine off and installed my engine that was in the Phantom, no problems. Rei offers to Vernon a new Autostart 1000 for the Phantom. Vernon is happy with his airstart for the most part and does not want to change. Rei offers to have Orlando install the whole system and Rei assures him that the autostart engine (X series) is fine and his airplane will be fine. I don't remember any problmes with the fuel pump even though I DO remember the ECU having to have the parameters changed quite a bit before it would ever start. I also do NOT remember Vernon ever getting mad or even slamming RAM. BTW he is still flying RAM engines and if you are really interested......I can tell you of the problems he is STILL having with them.

I also think a lot of both Rei, and Albert and have not been very vocal about the RAM problems that the Mississippi Gang has had but this is just the tip of the iceburg.

David Reid
No Flak jacket needed here cause I'm stating the facts.