Graham,

Many thanks, you're welcome and glad to have you on board the "sperimentation train". That was fun waren't it? Yes, modern materials, modern chemistry and modern techniques could bring a lot of folks into the fold. We DO have to fight back the "Electric Hoard" don't we? Hey, I"M KIDDING. My servos use motors. Some of my best friends are motors. [8D]

OK, castor and temperature. It occurs to me that a lot of what we knew about diesel had its genesis way back in time in Europe and the UK. I might venture to say that "Merry Olde" is not known for it's muggy weather. Hence there's no doubt that the problem of no mix in kerosene was quite true. Not a lot of diesel guys grew up in LaLA land, or Texas y'all, or gator country. Many Brit transplants, surely, and many of them flew diesel and just never discovered how it could be different.

What held me back for some 35 years of my modelling life was the deep mystery of the fuel. Impossible to get even back in the Sixties. Some magazine articles, yes, and didn't Davis get his start back then? But the mystery of diesel, the hard starting, the ether loss, the metal cans, the odd methods of storing and fuelling your engines. On and on and I wondered what the fuss was about. Like many, I wondered why bother? Glow plugs last a season and they're not that expensive. I drove Dave Larkin crazy with questions, prodding, poking and making a pest of myself. Joe Wagner tried, but got fed up with me. Davis tried, but I wouldn't listen. Then a few people, Raj, Dave, Don, Gary, AJ, and others, turned up the dial bit by bit and the bulb got brighter and brighter till I saw the light. It was Raj, though, that was the first to insist that I install a throttle on to a diesel engine of vintage variety. Geez I thought, what a waste. Well, he insisted and I obliged. Around then, I went to the SMALL fly-in in Ottawa and got some genuine, metal can, factory built and correct ingredients, diesel fuel, from Dave. I was more than prepared to pay the price for the gallon but Dave offered me an 8 ounce sample just to try. What a guy. Dave you're a credit to the land of stinky power. Anyway, I took that fuel home and ran Raj's engine. I spent the whole bottle's worth on the learning curve just to get a five minute run but the throttle worked perfectly and the SOUND, on a BIG prop. Lordamighty!! And with TORQUE. You could just feel it blast that air back. And so, I was hooked. Got me a PAW, and some heads for my .049s.

But it wasn't smooth sailing. The PAW didn't throttle to my expectations and yes, they are likely unrealistically high. But why not, I wondered? I had the VA .049 MK1 throttling perfectly on glow. I was still trying to figure that one out when I ventured to dieselize the VA. Three bent rods later and not a single pop and I gave up. No point going diesel if they won't start, never mind throttling well. And those rods were bent while flipping by HAND. Ouch. Well, we all know how dinky that rod was. But, as it turns out, flipping by hand was the problem, along with priming into the exhaust. I won't risk my last remaining MK1s but If I had a few to spare, you never know. But it was the Norvels that let me really do some serious work on diesel. Lots of spares available and the Norvels kept getting better and better. And as I went along, the fuel was being understood more and more. With Norvel's expansion of their line, up to the .40, I just had to give them all a try.

It's been pointed out to me that I admitted to breaking a Norvel .06 crank WAY back in one of my posts. Later on, I discovered that it was actually a Wasp crank installed in a highly modified Norvel. This crank had the intake port cut in a different fashion from Norvel so there's no mistaking it. The point is, that I've NEVER broken a Norvel crank,,, never. And this is with whacking with a starter. This is with taking off, overcompressed, many, many times and putting in an entire flight. This is while flying an 8 X 4 on an .06 on one occasion. Not that YOU won't break something but I've been lucky so far.

Yes, I did bend a few rods during the learning phase. That's when I bitterly complained about the dinky rod Norvel provides. That's when I posted proudly, pictures of custom made, brass bushed rods. Well, I shouldn't have bothered. God, that was a lot of work. Satisfying, but WORK. I've been flying stock rods on two .074s and one .06 for two years now with not a single bent rod. Not after I learned to find the compression setting BEFORE I filled the tank. Not after I discovered that the needle settings can be found on glow first. In some instances, the needle was right on and didn't have to be touched. I've even switched back and forth, glow to diesel to glow, several times, on the same afternoon, and never had to touch the main needle OR the airbleed. Yes, that was on 40% ether,, I'm sure that helped.

ALRIGHT,,, it looks like the rain is letting up. Supper first and then it's off to the test bench. [&:] Still lots of poking and prodding left to do.

Thanks again, Graham.