Anyone had any experience with these engines? I know about the long break in time but anything other than that?

It's just an older design than what the '48' is. The current MDS58 looks just like the old 46. I never heard anything bad about them. The muffler sticks more straight back than the 48 and could be more prone to touching the fuselage.

Enjoy,

Jim

Hey guys flew my Tracer with the .46 on the front this weekend. Worked just like a darn. Got 6 flights out of it. No problems, lotsa power.

Cdallas2, are you flying off grass?

Any problems rising off the ground?

Mine has some trouble. It takes off, but it's not a graceful run. Occasionally I have to abort. It's fine in the air. Big wheels help a bit - not a huge amount, but some. I've removed some downthrust that helps. Still could be better, however. Next thing is to try adding some more positive incidence.

My 11 inch prop is clipping the grass. I'm not sure how much that will slow down the prop. If a bit grass clipping equals a large power loss, then my problem may simply be that. Maybe a 10 inch prop would improve matters.

The peanut gallery has commented that the plane's speed varies on the ground run - slowing, then increasing, then slowing, etc during the take off run... hmmm... maybe that is entirely caused by the amount of grass I'm trimming during the run

I guess this isn't about engines... except perhaps the inquiry about the power required to cut grass

Mine was a little tricky to take off. You had to make a loong run and then it would just jump up onto the air. I wasn't too concerned since I was about an inch or more nose heavy.

I was using an APC 10x7 but never got a chance to tach it. I actually found a back issue of M.A.N. that had the MDS .46 specs in it and it said that max torque was produced at about 9700 rpm so I might try a 11x7.

These flights were off of grass with standard 2.5 Du-Bro wheels.. The club I going to be flying at has a paved runway so I will use some Lite-Flite 2" that they call for.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Yes, mine and another at my field have about the same take off... a long (very long) run follow by a jump into the air. I have trouble getting a smooth take off because it seems the plane must be forced off the gound once you think speed is sufficient. Must work on that. Thanks.

A fellow club member suggested up to 3 degrees positive incidence for a symetrical airfoil pattern plane to get off the ground cleanly.... I definitely don't have that. Next time out I'll stick a peice of fuel tubing under the back edge to increase the wings incidence.

If that doesn't do it, I have a 10x10 waiting for testing... that ought to be interesting.

Let me know how it goes.

This is easily the best plane I have ever flown. I'm used to planes that have some self-righting capability and this was just totally opposite. I actually had to fly the plane!!

I haven't flown much over the past couple of years so it took me a few flights to get the hang of it.

I can't wait to fly it again.