ORIGINAL: Squire
Hand cranking was the order of the day and we were flying Control Line with the throttleless carbs wide open. You quickly learned not to flood the engine by too much priming - still a valuable lesson. Plus, when you finally ran the flood out (in very small bursts) the engine was perfect for backfiring and catching your finger. Hard learned lessons but you soon got the hang of it.
Placement of the prop when the engine comes up on compression is important too. The prop should be horizontal when it comes up on compression. This gives you an arc that will let your fingers clear before it comes back and gets a finger.
Good luck. When you are seen at the field hand cranking everyone knows you are an "old timer" with emphasis on the "old" part!
Phil
I've flown CL for over 40 years and still do. Most of our engines are all plain bearing supported crankshafts and usually with no spinner. We hand flipped everything from Cox .049's up to Fox 35s and up to 60 size 2-strokes. It is most impressive to watch the CL combat guys get their "one hit" starts and launch within mere milliseconds of the horn going off. Those are pressure fed, high compression engines with a small prop. They always rotate the prop counter clockwise just until it comes up against the compression stroke (the prop should be horizontal). Then they'll smartly hit the right hand blade downward and (with the correct amount of prime) the engine instantly starts and is screaming away at 20,000 rpm with no muffler. [sm=spinnyeyes.gif]
With the advent of razor sharp carbon props some serious injuries caused the CL aerobatics folks to change their starting rules and allow electric starters.
I fly mostly small 2 cycle (.15-.46 size) engines and very nearly hand start them all. On my BB .46 powered RC ship, I mostly use the electric starter but have started it by merely twisting the spinner clockwise.
Four cycle engines I wouldn't use anything but a starter...