Will circular runways ever take off?

On Sunday, March 19, 2017 at 6:07:48 AM UTC+3, OHM Ω http://aviation.derosaweb.net wrote:
On Friday, March 17, 2017 at 11:32:16 AM UTC-5, wrote:
Just like with U-line control airplanes! Mine was a P-51D with a Cox 0.049...

Sure made this pilot (more of a crasher) dizzy!

Cox 0.049. Piffle! Flew CL in the 60's with a Fox 0.35. He-man stuff. I cannot tell you how many mixture adjustment screws I broke moving the control the wrong way while inverted. Oops.

I have no idea what it was that I had as a 10 or 11 year old in '73 or '74. But the story is maybe interesting :-)

I went to school in a small village (Hikurangi). For some reason I was in the newsagent near the school when I noticed a boxed but clearly opened model plane on the shelf. I asked about it and was told that it had been sold twice, but neither buyer had been able to make it run, and it had been returned. I said "I bet I can make it go" and was told "If you can make it go you can have it -- take the engine now and bring it back tomorrow".

Challenge accepted.

I don't remember anything about the plane except it was control line and the engine was a "diesel" (i.e. pure compression ignition, no glow plug to start it) and rather incongruously called a "Merlin" which I knew even then was the name of the engine in a Spitfire.

So a quick google turns up:

http://www.modelenginenews.org/cardfile/merlin.html
http://www.modelenginenews.org/cardf...es/merlins.jpg

And that's definitely it. Mine must have been the "Super Merlin" as it had the plastic fuel tank bolted to the back of the engine.

0.75 cc. I didn't know that then. I guess that's 0.046 in the lingo you guys are talking.

I don't know what the previous customers had been doing, because it took me less than five minutes to get it running, even starting from absolutely zero knowledge about model aircraft engines (though I was already experienced with 2 stroke lawnmowers and chainsaws and motorcycles).

Got to love the modern internet...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WykvN6vYEiU

I reckon I got it going easier than this guy does! And I didn't have any bench mount .. I just held it by the fuel tank with my spare hand.

So, I took it back to the shop, demonstrated that I could get it going, and the owner gave me the model plane that went with it.

My brother and I had a few hours fun playing with it with nothing serious happening. Until our father asked to try it. "I did a couple of hours in a Harvard when I was in Cadets in 57". Right. Well .. he got about two turns around the circle, then it was straight up, straight down at full power (no choice about that), and a plane smashed to smithereens.

And that was the end of that.