Just a note about using an electric starter (which I personally always use, mostly because I'm lazy).

You really want to prime the engine. I see a lot of guys who just grind on the starter until fuel goes up the line and eventually in to the engine and eventually the engine starts. This is wearing the piston-liner fit more than necessary, as well as spinning lots of the engine parts around with out fuel in there for lubrication.

So, always prime at least a little.

I've also found that some engines like a sloppy, dripping primes. My Magnum .28's and .25 are like this. I set full throttle, glow off, cover carb, flip until fuel reaches carb, then flip 5 more times. I can feel the fuel on my finger, and some often drips out of the side-mounted engines's carb. But when I attach the lighter then give a quick blip with the starter, they fire right up.

My OS's, on the other hand, prefer a much leaner prime, just get the fuel up the carb, then 1 more turn, that's it. Anything more and it will be flooded.

I don't know why this difference exists, but I've put too many hours on these engines, and flown too many rounds of combat with them to not know it's true. (in combat, you get 90 seconds to start the engine and launch, after which you loose points, so winning and loosing can be decided by your engine starting right up, or not).

Anyway, my point, get to know your engine. Try differnet primes and see what it likes, then do that.

Oh, on all my engines, I don't worry about what happens to the fuel in the line after the prime. Once the fuel is in the engine, that is what fires off. The stuff in the line can go all the way to the tank, it doesn't matter. And once the engien fires, it usually turns enough to draw the fuel up from the tank before the engine stops.