Not all that many years ago in the 'Good Old Days' there where no commercial electric starters. I,ll bet you think I am going to start waxing poetic about the virtues of a stick Huh? Well forget it. The so called good old days were lousy and the lack of good starters were in fact chief among the reasons they were lousy.

Now don,t get me wrong hand starting is fine to a point but you will find Avistar pilot that as you mature into the sport there are a wide variety of engines and engine temperments out there. While yes many are very user friendly and hand start easily if everything is just right and you have taken the time getting the prime just so, etc. but the fact is you are not going to get it just right every time due to all sorts of distractions and you will be standing there cranking and cranking no matter how good an engine man you are.

On top of all that there are many more engines out there that are not so user friendly and with the huge variety we have avaliable to us today: gas, four strokes, two strokes, diesels, rotorys and giant as well as tiny versions of all these many will bite big time even using a chicken stick including ripping the stick right out of your hand. useing for example a stick on modern .40 size pylon engine, engines that routinely static out around 22000 RPM is the height of insanety.

Now if that does not begine to convince you that using a stick is primarily an emergency method then lets look at it from a differant perspective. Yes there are quite a few folks that never bring a starter even when they do own one. They seem to enjoy the macho factor they believe goes with hand starting and the Wow factor when view by the unintiated. Well it never fails at some point this individual will be standing there cranking and cranking and more often than not. Then the walking up and down flight line starts to borrow a starter. All I have to say to this individual who is always bragging about never bringing their starter is: Carry your own damn batteries. I am not doing it for you!

So while yes a stick has its place and most newbies only are sold sticks. I always spend time time with them in its proper usage and let them practice but stress the importance of getting properly set up with a starter as soon as possible.


John