ORIGINAL: krashkart
I have noted as a newbie (again) that some of the people at the fields don't use an electric starter on their motors and just flip start them.
I can remember doing this by hand or with a stick in the 50-60s doing U Control and in my early days of RC in the 70s and I think I still have some scars too.
I am looking at an 80 class 4 stroke.
I will assume an electric starter is a good idea? And If so I assume that one of the typical $30 starters would be OK for that sized engine?
I have observed the electric and hand starting since I started in the hobby last year and I have found that I can hand-start or electric start. The thing that I have done is timed the two and electric starting is so much faster than hand starting almost every time - hands-down. I am usually in the air flying just about every time before any of the guys that hand start. For some of the larger airplanes it might be a close time frame.
To me, the quicker electric starting makes electric starting the way to go and another plus is it is much less effort for me and as one person pointed out not as dangerous for your fingers. I am sure if you don't have your electric starter setup to use quickly and effectively hand starting might be better for you.
We have a few hand-starters at our field, but the best hand starter we have cannot start his planes and be in the air flying as fast as I can. If he and I start at the very same time I am taxiing out and starting my takeoff just when his plane starts. Some habits are hard to break and I guess hand-starting is one of them. For a reasonable sum you can get a battery and a decent starter and you are off and running. I like to be in the air flying instead of spending a great deal of my daylight flying hours starting an airplane. [8D]