Here we go, my second official attempt at running a glow engine! My first attempt was a 1.00 Evolution 2 stroke in a 1/4 scale Bud Nosen Citabria. The guy who built the plane had all kinds of errors and problems with his how it was set up, and even after fixing a bunch of problems I just couldn't get the glow engine to run properly. Many say this is because it's an Evolution engine, and they do seem to have a bad rap. Eventually I gave up and installed a 26cc gasser, which powers the plane very well.
Fast forward a few months and I ended up picking up a couple planes that were almost ready to fly, a water plane and this Great Planes Zero. Great Planes recommends a .46-.55 size glow motor (or electric), but this one came with the .61. A little extra weight in the nose and a bit more power than stock, I can work with that.
So after finally getting the new fuel lines and a fuel tank installed, it was time to fire it up. The seller told me he ran the engine to tune it, but the plane was never flown. From what I can see he wasn't lying. The plane wasn't finished enough to have flown, so hopefully the engine was good.
After filling the tank half way I primed the engine and then applied the glow plug starter. With an electric prop it came to life immediately, and idled almost perfectly! It took a little playing around to get it to transition to full throttle smoothly, and I think it's dialed in pretty well now. At least enough to make me happy with my first real glow engine tuning session! Tuning isn't quite done, and I need to do some more programming at the transmitter, but it's running well enough that I'll push to get it done for the next good day to fly. The weekend weather looks like garbage, so that should give me plenty of time to play with it and have it ready.
Fast forward a few months and I ended up picking up a couple planes that were almost ready to fly, a water plane and this Great Planes Zero. Great Planes recommends a .46-.55 size glow motor (or electric), but this one came with the .61. A little extra weight in the nose and a bit more power than stock, I can work with that.
So after finally getting the new fuel lines and a fuel tank installed, it was time to fire it up. The seller told me he ran the engine to tune it, but the plane was never flown. From what I can see he wasn't lying. The plane wasn't finished enough to have flown, so hopefully the engine was good.
After filling the tank half way I primed the engine and then applied the glow plug starter. With an electric prop it came to life immediately, and idled almost perfectly! It took a little playing around to get it to transition to full throttle smoothly, and I think it's dialed in pretty well now. At least enough to make me happy with my first real glow engine tuning session! Tuning isn't quite done, and I need to do some more programming at the transmitter, but it's running well enough that I'll push to get it done for the next good day to fly. The weekend weather looks like garbage, so that should give me plenty of time to play with it and have it ready.