Downunder gets it and might well agree that Americans in general use way more nitromethane than they need. I wonder if downunder uses a little acetone or other igniter in the winter there for a little easier starting. We used to use acetone, propylene oxide, nitromethane, nitrobenzene (Oil of Merbane), kerosene, you name it, to get faster speeds on model engines. We also got to find out what it takes to burn a hole in the top of a piston in rat racing and speed engines. :-)To me, one of the best benefits of nitromethane in reasonable amounts is a better, smoother idle and a little better throttle transition across idle to full throttle and a little easier starting. Despite what was said earlier in this thread, it is NOT easy to get large amounts of nitromethane. With Homeland Security and the drug manufacturing trade (illegal), I can't even buy a pound of iodine to treat my horse's foot. I practically had to leave my firstborn the last time I got a barrel of nitro. It seems that it was used in the Oklahoma federal building bombing. Even ammonium nitrate fertilizer is now tagged, and some will not blow up a stump. When bad people do bad things, the rest of us seem to pay along with them in some way. Except for racing and high performance work, I find that most engines will work just fine on 0-15% nitromethane, and for sport flying with many engines, 10% or 15% is just great. My experience is that, in general, a lot of folks are using high or very high nitromethane fuels, and fuels containing too little oil for the intended purpose. If you want to fly on the cheap, just mix yourself some FAI fuel and if you have a quart of nitro, add 5% to the FAI fuel and fly your heart out on your 2-stroke engines. The old FAI was 70/30 and the newer is 80% methanol and 20% castor. Oops, showing my age again! Just a few reflections from an old rat racer, combat flyer, free-flight and RC flyer.