Safe Hand Starting
I prefer hand starting 'cause it's less junk to haul out and maintain, and it gives me a better feel for the engine. But, I make a living with my hands, and the prospect of losing even small parts of them sickens me. My own invention (probably old news) is chicken sticks fashioned from radiator hose. A single 18" length of 1-3/4" hose is plenty stiff to flip a 30 cc engine. Three concentric layers of 1-1/4" to 2-1/2" hose do nicely for the 100-150 cc'ers. MAKE SURE YOU FASTEN THEM FIRMLY TOGETHER. The hose material is gentle on props and rugged. You can practice sort of a slingshot effect to actually get more flip velocity than by hand. Only drawback is the black smudge on your hand (or the cowls until you get good at it.)
I'm flying mostly 3W's, a coupla BME's. The former are a lot easier to hand start. Even an easy starter can be tough by hand on a twin (P-38) 'cause you can't listen to the second engine very well after the first one's going, so I use a starter for that one.
mt