RE: worst engine ever
I always said that I would never own an MDS engine too, after reading so much bad about them, but I now have an MDS .48 that came on a built and well used Sig 4*40. The owner assured me that it ran very well. I haven't ran it yet, so I don't truly know, but I think I saw this model flying at a club event once and remarked that whatever was powering it sure did wail. It was probably the same engine.
When turning the prop back and forth between compression, it feels as smooth as a Rossi. It even looks a little like one too.
I'm going to pull the MDS .48 and replace it with a four-stroke engine. It's sacriligious to fly a 4*40 with anything but a four-stroke engine. Afterwards, I'll mount the MDS .48 on the test bench and run it there. Just for kicks.
When flying control line in the USAF, I ended up with a new Cox Medallion .15 engine. It was a bear to hand start, but once running, it was just fine. I used to avoid flying the model with the Cox .15 on it because it was so hard to start. I'm used to one or two flip starts and no matter what I did, I could not learn the drill that would give me those easy starts with the Cox .15 Medallion engine. I ended up giving it to one of the dependent children club members in our base model airplane club (Luke Eagles Model Airplane Club). This was at Luke AFB in Arizona, near Phoenix.
Ed Cregger