ORIGINAL: RCKen
I have one pet peeve that I want to blow off some steam on. We have one guy in our club that when he comes out he will tie down his plane in the pits and sit there for entire tanks of fuel adjusting the needle hunting for that "perfect peak". Of course he usually over leans the engine and it dies once he takes off. We've all tried to tell him this but he just won't listen. So why does this irrate me?? Because when he's in the pits running his engine nobody can hear anything else. If I'm in the air I can't hear the engine on my plane anymore. Of if I'm talking to other at the field we can't hear each other to talk. Now don't get me wrong, I don't mind somebody adjusting their needle settings, because I do the same. I make the adjustment and then return the engine to idle. But he runs his engine for 10, 15, or even 20 minutes at a time!!!! [:@]
Ok, I'm better now!!!!
Ken
So that guy shows up at your field too, that's not good. I really hate it when he fires the thing up right as you are about to do a maiden take-off.
I'll never claim to be the best pilot on earth but one thing I can do is adjust an engine. I've been working with small engines since I was 9 or 10 and worked on cars trucks and forklifts from the late 80's until 2005. I've always tried to help someone who was struggling to get their plane running right but it seems like a lot of people don't want the advice or help so I try to mind my own business now if I can.
Glow engines really have gotten a bad rap in some cases and a lot of it is with people not knowing how to tune them or fiddling with them all the time.