I had the same problem with my Alpha 60 when it arrived. Starts out of the box...shyeah right! Maybe it does if it is broken in correctly, but I think they missed mine. I could not start it to save my life on day one. Fuel spit out of the carb's air intake (just as you described) and shot me right in the eye...fun fun. I ended up getting it started on day two, and it ran well enough to taxi around the driveway. Unfortunately, the rudder and throttle were both off and the thing wouldn't shut down, so it taxied right into a fence and wiped out my prop. (By the way, you apparently cannot buy the replacement Evo training prop for the Alpha 60...it hasn't been released for resale yet.) After replacing the prop with a tri-blade master airscrew, I couldn't start the engine. Now, mind you, all I had was a chicken stick...

Finally I took the thing up to meet with an instructor. He wasn't there, but one of the guys at the field came over and watched me mess with the thing. He offered the help of his electric starter, and after a good torque session the engine fired and coughed all kinds of crap out of the carb and the muffler. I went and bought a starter that day.

One thing I found was that the Evo 61 engine tended to backfire and start the prop spinning the wrong direction...a lot. My instructor told me to try flipping the prop clockwise and it worked great. The engine would predictably backfire and spin in the right direction (counterclockwise).

I'm guessing that all those attempts at starting the engine flooded everything, and it had to cycle all that crud out to run.

Unfortunately, the engine has a definite personality and just seems to run when it wants to. I've heard all kinds of theories, but in the end everyone who has looked at it really has no clue why it just dies for no reason, or why the high end valve is never predictable. I'm starting to wonder if there is something defective in the thing.

Hope that story helps.