RE: Throttled VA .020
Graham,
A diesel head is on my todo list for sure, for both the TD and the VA. But I worry about the integrity of the cranks for both. I have TD spares but not VA.
Easytiger,
About the VA .020. It was made to spec for Richard Palmer and he was going to sell them for free-flight but they came with a poor glow head set up, badly undercompressed. Richard made up a new set up, using Glow Bee plugs, I think and turned it around. I used TD .010,020 and .049 plugs to make buttons. Various levels of success on those but not optimum. The .020 is true ABC and the innard bits are exquisite, jewel like, extremely well made. It share the flaw of the other VA engines in the way the wrist pin is stuck on. As such it needs an all castor fuel, not always easy to get in many places.
I've lost track of Richard and don't know what came of the engines he had at the time. I'd like to think that despite the shortcomings, lots of folks would like to own one.