Electric starter procedure

[fly boy3]

Hi all, As I mainly only fly ic I always use an electric starter. I have seen fliers who love to flick their engines to start. Never works for me though.  lol. 
     Just wondered what is best practice when offering up the starter to motor.

      1, have starter running, then engage to spinner.

 

       2, fit starter to spinner, then start the starter.    Thanks

 

 

[J D 8]

 Fit to spinner and then start for me, with larger engines turning prop back against compression before hitting the trigger lets the starter get going for most of a turn. You do not need to handle the prop for this [ in case of unexpected start ] but just turn the cup of starter with fingers.

[Cuban8]

Best practice? well, I suppose it's whatever works for the individual. For what it's worth my idea of BP is.........with very few exceptions (tiny glow engines and diesels) I'd never hand start an engine without a chicken stick. Short length of broomstick is fine - had mine for decades. Still got all my fingers and sans scars! I don't run petrol engines at the moment, but my mates who do, either use a starter or their hand protected by a substantial leather glove.

Electric starter.......normally turn the engine over by hand first with the chicken stick to check for flooding and to see if I get a 'kick' then either flick again or apply starter.

I apply the starter when not running but not on a compression stroke. Applying a running starter to the spinner risks getting things out of line and the starter being thrown off to one side and into the prop.

Sounds more of a faff than it really is, but I've witnessed some horrific and bloody accidents over the years that could have very easily been avoided. I'm sure everyone has their own MO.

[Engine Doctor]

  I believe the main reason for modellers applying a running starter to an engine is due to the starters being very low torque and unable to turn engine caused by worn brushes , battery low or worn and slipping rubber cone / insert. It invariably goes wrong and the starter ends up in the prop and occassionally taking the users hand or fingers in as well. Not usually a problem until the time the engine starts! A worn rubber insert can also cause the sarter to spin off center with the same results.

I find the old big heavy starters we had years ago very ineficient with rubbish switches that often wont switch on or occasionally stick on . Why these are still being sold is beyond me . The modern geared or planetery geard starters like Kavan ( there are other makes) are far better, being easierto hold and capable of spinning far bigger engines that have strong compression. 

As for hand starting , this shouldnt be a problem if simple rules are followed. Use chicken finger or for bigger petrol engines a decent leather glove/welders glove /mitt. 

Im sure we have all seen a colleague spinning a motor for ages in a vain attempt to start it when it obviously not going to start due to another prolem that they are not aware of and/ or refuse to look at. 

Finally dont pick up bad habbits from the old die hards who have the scars to prove it 😉

[Simon Lumsdon 2]

Coming back to the hobby a couple of years ago i had to learn this all over again, my procedure looks like this

1 restrain model with strap over tail

2 fuel up

3 spin engine full throttle without glow to prime engine (if this doesnt draw fuel thru put finger overt exhaust, this will pressurise tank and push fuel thru)

4 set throttle to just above idle

5 connect glow 

6 turn prop clockwise to compression (use starter cone to avoid fingers) so starter gets a run up

7 push starter onto spinner firmly and push starter button

8 if no luck, go back to 3 and repeat

 

i found that the s/h starter i had worked ok for a 40 but for 60 2 strokes it wasnt strong enough and i bought a geared starter from just engines, made a BIG difference. I suspect the old starters magnets had lost strength, it really lacked torque

[Frank Skilbeck]

Same as Simon, except I prime the engine by turning the engine over by hand with either finger over exhaust (for exhaust pressured tanks) or over carb. Spinning the engine over at high speed while priming could potentially cause a hydraulic lock if too much fuel comes through. Note this is for glow engines, petrol engines with a choke is slightly different.

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

One pitfall with geared starters is that they can be too slow for smaller engines. 
 

This occurred to me when I was bringing a small engine back to life after many years of storage in unknown conditions and a clean/rebuild - after several minutes of starter action/investigation with no sign of life, I gave it a finger flick after a prime and it started. Subsequent experimentation showed it refused to start on the big starter but would hand start or go on a smaller direct starter with no difficulty. 

[Nigel R]

Prime by hand.

Glow on 

Put starter in place. 

Squeeze starter trigger. 

Remove Glow. 

Get behind prop ASAP.

 

 

Never do #1. Too much scope for things to go wrong. Acceptable number of things going wrong with a rapidly spinning knife nearby is zero. 

Edited May 8, 2023 by Nigel R

[J D 8]

One change I make to the above is to go behind before removing glow.

[Simon Lumsdon 2]

This is all good and underlines its good to have a system or check list, helps avoid costly mistakes

[PDB]

3 hours ago, J D 8 said:

One change I make to the above is to go behind before removing glow.

Although others sometimes wonder what I'm doing, no way am I reaching over to remove the glow starter/clip. I'll walk and position myself behind the prop then remove it and make needle adjustments.

 

As my instructor said that's the nasty end and I've already seen two people catch the prop. ☹️

[Peter Jenkins]

I used to use a starter almost all the time for a first start.  Thereafter, finger over the carb, turn prop over by hand for 3 turns, apply the glow driver and using my chicken stick briskly turn the prop backwards.  Almost always starts on 1st or 2nd backward flick - by flick I don't mean taking it over TDC but just a smart rap on the prop to get the piston to approach TDC and the charge to fire.  As it's after TDC, in the conventional sense, the engine then runs in the correct direction.  Turning the engine over in the usual direction gets it running in reverse - at least that's what happens to me!  Works fine up to 91 strokes.  My 4 strokes tend to have pumps so it's the starter every time.