Okeey dokee! Thanks guys! So, it will be all right to run it without the prop .... great! And just to make sure I understand, I can push the red button to start the motor, per the instructions, and if need be, press it again to stop the motor at some point during the run. Okay, I think I'm ready to experiment ! I guess the next big thing to figure out is how best to mount that big ol' potentiometer (I assume to be the RPM pot) Of the various E-models I've seen, I don't remember seeing anyone with something like this mounted to the side of their plane!
Tim & Wynn pretty well summed it up - everything has been said but not everybody has said it!
About the stress - I know what you mean because I was EXACTLY where you are when I did my first set-up. When I first started mine - nothing happened! The system I had used a small activating switch and there was a broken solder joint. Fixed that, it worked, and I felt like I OWNED it!
The Brodak hardware all comes pre-wired and ready to plug & play - hopefully taking a little bit of that stress out of the equation.
Plug the 3 motor wires into the ESC - you have an exactly 50% chance of getting the correct motor rotation first try. As noted above, if it runs backwards, shut it off and switch ANY two of 3 wires and try again. I used to mark the connectors with tape - but I do not bother anymore. Its less bother to just check & correct it. (yes, I have got to the flight line with a motor that ran backwards when started - twice!)
The START button is also the STOP button - unless you let it run out the flight duration time you have set.
Will Hubin makes lots of timers, I selected his manual timer with the RPM fine tuning pot because it is as close to a "needle valve" as you can get and (generally) "newbie friendly". Will originally built timers like this for people who like the Castle "High Gov" governor mode and wanted a refined way to set the RPM.
There are 3 pots on the timer, their functions are called out on the timer board. This timer has a pot adjustment for start-up delay, another pot for flight duration and two pots for setting the RPM. The "coarse" RPM adjustment is on the timer board and is intended to get the RPM to within 500 rpm - in reality you can usually set it right where you want it. If you miss the RPM, then the remote pot is a fine-tune, with a range of 500 RPM. It is suitable to - well, fine tune the setting you want. It is also handy for those of us locked into the glow engine ritual of changing the settings every flight (you will learn to forget that habit!)
As for the size of the pot, I am installing one now and plan to cut down the length of the shaft. Looks like I could remove about 1/2 of it and never miss it.
By the way, lots of folks settle on Will Hubin's FM-9 timer SYSTEM which incudes a box for programming the timer. It is more expensive to start out with but generally a good idea if you plan on building a lot of electric birds. Write to Will directly to get his prices and lead time.
Functionally the timers will all drive the ESC the same way, it boils down to which methods do you feel comfortable with and how much do you want to invest.