Will circular runways ever take off?

On Sunday, March 19, 2017 at 4:49:07 PM UTC+3, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Sun, 19 Mar 2017 04:28:57 -0700, Bruce Hoult wrote:

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.

Nice one. When I wur a lad most of the engines we had were diesels, but
were the older Mills 0.75 and the Milles 1.3 (ccs of course) and mostlyt
went on the front Keilkraft Phantom Mites and Phantoms respectively, easy
to fly and made from sheet balsa.

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

An .049 engine is just under 0.8cc. Americans have innumerable
competition classes. all based around engine capacity in both 'U-
control' (control line) and free flight, so just as the most popular
engines were the Cox PeeWee and TeeDee .049s, there was also a Cox
TeeDee .051 so you could fly a model in one class with a TD 049 on it,
then replace that with a TD 051 and fly it in the next class up.

TeeDees were the motors to have until Leroy Cox lost his shirt when the
slot car craze imploded, his fantastic machine tools wore out and the
engines got progressively worse. TeeDes were machined from bar stock to
such good tolerances that breaking a new motor in involved bolting it
onto the model, giving it 30 seconds of rich 4-stroke running and then
leaning it out and letting it scream.

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

Easiest engine to start I ever had was an ED Racer (2.46cc diesel). I
bolted it to the bench, filled the tank, quick squirt in the ports and
flicked it over slowly to get some lube on the bearings - and it started
with that first flick.

Young folks now with their LIPOs and ESCs and digital proportional control and digital response curves and control mixing and trim and and and ... don't know what they're missing.

Oh to be a kid now! Well, a kid with money, anyway. I never had that either.