Rusty,
Yup! That's a pair of hemostats that you gave me in a bladder care package a few years ago. Thank You Very Much! They come in handy for refueling and prepping the engine. I'm not as fast as you when trying to get them un-clamped when the engine starts on prime. I've tried a couple of different things to clamp off the fuel tubing on start, but I found something I really like by accident with this plane. Having that cheek block on the inside of the nose makes it really easy for me to pinch the fuel hose with my forefinger when I flip the prop. I think from now on that I will make 1/4" cheek blocks on the inboard side of my 1/2A planes if I think I'm going to go bladder with them. I'll have to make time to do more product engines on bladder to get the most out of them. I waffle between new 1/2A projects, and new projects for larger engines. I want to get into competing (someday...), so I'm playing with four cycles and such to get used to more appropriate sized stunt ships. But I still keep starting up new 1/2A projects, because I just can't help myself.
Dennis, keep the comments coming. I'm always willing to hear someone else's thoughts on safety. I run the yellow safety tip props on my Cox Bees and product engines, and on my Testors and Wen-Macs because they are relatively low speed engines. I'd not use it on a TeeDee that was screaming. As I said above, I love the bright yellow prop arc they give. I haven't gotten bit by a yellow rubber ducky yet! (Now watch...). Also, you can't tell from the video, but I always wear eye protection when I'm running my engines.
Dave, I could probably get some more speed out of this engine if I went with a different prop, and maybe a little better needling, but I don't know how much more speed I could get out of an old pipe bomb before it eats itself. I don't know for sure, but I doubt that they would be happy running more than 16 or 17K. I figure 15K is a very good neighborhood for these Testors/Wen-Mac/AMF engines. And on a 1/2A model with the Cox prop shown, history shows me that a light plane will get up and boogie. I was amazed at what my Baby Ringmaster with the 5x3 rubber ducky was capable of doing when it was flown by a person who knew his stuff. The plane above weighs 5 1/2 ounces, not the greatest/not the worst, but it should be happy flying on a 5x3 at 14.7K.
Mark
Mark