The frustration is when the "nibblers" present themselves as experts. How does someone new to the hobby distinguish? The nibblers have as much right as anyone else to express their opinion; however, many nibblers have no idea, apparently, that they are nibblers. They don't know what they don't know.
That is precisely the problem. No one sets out to be malicious, they genuinely want to help, and think they are. But, the sad truth is that the "local engine expert" has done more to hold stunt back or inhibit people's progress than any other single phenomenon (for a lack of a better word) in the last 40 years. And whether they mean to or not, what ends up happening is indistinguishable from preying on beginners in their desire to help.
But it's not just that, one the idea that you should take engines apart and modify them for stunt, almost *everyone* started doing it. Any contest where I am not judging, I end up spending most of my free day listening to engine problems and helping people fix them. Even some pretty experienced modelers do some pretty silly things, looking for something complicated, when it is frequently absurdly simple. Like "my engine 'ran away' so I added some head gaskets, but it didn't help" - when the problem was a clogged needle valve, not to mention that lowering the compression frequently *causes* "runaways" instead of fixing it. It wouldn't needle on the ground, what makes you think it would fix itself in the air? That's why I am continually out of spare parts - I end up spending so much time putting "un screwed up" parts on other peoples airplanes that I run short on them. I don't begrudge it but it illustrates the scope of the problem.
You see the same thing almost continuously on the "engine setup tips" forum, people looking for complex issues when it is simple. I got to be considered a guru several times when *all I did was put people's engine back to the way they came from the factory* - and somehow that makes me some sort of OS whisperer? It would have worked exactly the same way *had you left the damn thing alone* in the first place! Meaning, also, that *you didn't need any sort of engine expert or "help" - the "help" you got just screwed everything up!
The opposite happens, too, of course, people living with problems that are blatantly obvious and insisting that there is no problem. Since this started out with Fox 35s - burps. Many times, most of the time in fact, even if it quits and causes a crash, the owner insists that, variously, "that's what it is supposed to do" and how great and reliable those Fox 35s were. Or "it's a tank problem, the engine is fine", or "needed a hotter glow plug" - not the one acknowledged fix, when if done, allows you to use the same tank and glow plug that was previously deemed defective. This is exacerbated by, every once in a while, one that works unmodified, thus providing the necessary positive reinforcement that there is nothing wrong. An extremely (and deservedly) notable engine guy told me once, in the space of 3 paragraphs, that "it never does that", "it does do that, but that's how it controls the speed", and "it does do that and the fix is to route the tank vents differently".
I don't know if there is any realistic solution to this, and it's not like we are curing cancer here, we are old men playing with model airplanes, so maybe it doesn't need a solution. But it does frustrate me greatly to see people struggle because of bad advice, or ignoring obvious problems, and never getting anywhere, when the *best equipment we have ever had in the history of the event* and the *necessary information to make full use of it* is widely available for free, usually in minutes or hours.
Brett
Topic: Coming soon New Fox 35 75th edition (Read 13450 times)
