hey, i just got my plane in the other day, and the engine was supposed to be "easy to start" (its an OS 40). So, i put the plane together, and I went outside to break in the engine. I put fuel in the tank, prime the engine, and everything else you can do, but i just couldnt get it to start with a chicken stick. So i called my neighbor (who is an airline pilot, and really into r/c planes), and he came over with an electric starter. The electric starter didnt have enough power to turn the engine past compression, even when it was full charged. So we had to use the chicken stick again. About half the attempts ended up with us not being able to pass the compression point. Finally, we got it started. It took us about 4 hours to get it started, because the engine is so tight. Since then, ive run about 3 tanks of gas through it, and its not gettin any easier to start... is there something i need to kno about it that my neighbor doesnt know?

if you are talking about OS 40 LA, I had hard time starting it first couple of times with the chicken stick, I spent more than 1 hour for it to start first time. Then at the field my instructor put the electric starter, it started in a second. I bought a starter afterwards, starter is a reasonable expense. And safer than chicken stick, I had couple of kick-backs with the chciken stick and I feel much safer with a remote needla and starter

I've got the same motor, had the same problem. A buddy of mine came over, said turn up the heat on the glow plug to the red line on my panel & kaboom, starts everytime, almost immediately.
I haven't had any problems since.

What glow plug do you have?
I'm not sure about this, but I'm beginning to think that the OS #8 likes a bit more juice to get hot than some other plugs. I'm far from sure on that though. Just a gut feeling from a few things I've seen happen at the field recently.

If you are having trouble flipping past compression, you might be hydro-locked. That's when the engine is flooded to the point that liquid fuel is preventing the piston from going up any further. Be careful, it's possible to damage the engine in this situation.

New ABC/ABN engines like the OS engines are frequently very stiff when the piston is at the top of the stroke. That's a good thing. If you're having trouble flipping it through compression, try flipping it backwards against compression, it sometimes helps.