Anybody flying diesel?

Why?

How many diesel engines on the local store shelf?

I have and old Micron 2,5CC, but no way to fly it due to noise regulation. So I fly glow, or silent?

Thirty years ago it was easy to buy Ether at the local drugstore, now you have to go at the chemist and pay a lot for nothing. So my Micron is stored in a jar of petrol.

Enjoy your flight,

MLB

I would assume that's because you are in the States.

On this side of the pond, diesels used to be preferred to glows and diesel fuel was readily available from the model shops (still is in my local).

When I started model flying, both fuels cost about the same and I went for diesels because of the cost of the "extras" needed for glow engines.

Nowadays, diesel is about twice the cost of "straight" glow fuel and, even though diesels are more economical with fuel consumption, the saving is not so great.

I still use diesels as well as glow engines, and only went to glows because they were reputed to behave better when fitted with throttle control - I'm not totally convinced that this is the case - my throttled diesels work as well as my glows, and for the same capacity can swing a bigger range of propellers as well as, again IMO, give more power and duration for the same amount of fuel.

I particularly like diesels for "power pod" applications with gliders - the old man's tow line.

Malcolm

--------------------------------------------------------- They make a great engine for a glider towing plane also. Take a look at my web page, which will confirm your statement about the large range of propellers that can be managed by a diesel. I also have thrust and horsepower equations on the page.

Brian

Hi

I remember at the age of about 14 (many years ago) walking into my local branch of Boots the Chemists here in the UK, handing over an old pop bottle and asking for "a pint of ether please" - they sold me it without batting an eyelid and without even asking why I wanted it. I was making my own diesel fuel - ether, paraffin and "Castrol M" motor oil if I remember correctly. Worked a treat as I recall.

I bet you couldn't buy a pint of ether over the counter now!!!

Regards KGB

------------------------------------------------------- Yes, things have changed. And much of the freedom to experiment and improvise has vanished. I gave up on mixing my own fuel, though you can still buy engine starter fluid which is mostly ether, but you don't know how much pure ether you have. The local hobby shops don't carry diesel anymore, and don't sell diesel engines. Plus, you need a mentor to learn the operation of diesel engines, though they are simple, they are totally different than glow. Now, 4-stroke glows and two stroke gasoline engines are gaining in popularity, so I guess the number of diesel operators will diminish even further. But, I love my PAW 0.49 tbr and 0.60 tbr engines.

Brian

Flying diesels? Yep, a dear old Irvine 40 bought from E-bay some month

ago, and a Thunder Tiger 46 Pro with one of A J Coholic's conversio heads. Two problems - the price of fuel and the yecchh smell of sam after the suck/squeeze/bang/blow bit. Today, tried a homebrew mix o

20% castor oil, 45% citronella lamp oil and 35% outrageously-expensiv ether. No IPN or any other kind of ignition improver - 'cos you can' get any - yet the results were not bad at all. Perhaps a little bi 'clacky' at slow revs, but I can live with that. Quite an interestin experiment but sadly no worthwhile saving on price and no grea improvement on l'aroma de yuck

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If you want a really cheap fuel, you can use a mix of 80% kerosene and 20% rape seed oil with 2 to 5% IPN. It's not so easy to start, and the exhaust residue is very black but I have used it and there seemed to be more power. A slightly higher compression setting is needed than if using fuel containing ether.

I know you said you can't get IPN, but when I was using this mix, the stuff was available from my local model shop - don't know if it is still available.

Malcolm

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"Brian Morris" schrieb:

So do I. The planes I flew yesterday:

by 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 ccm Schlosser diesel engines.

Dietmar

"Malcolm Fisher" schrieb:

Sorry, what is IPN?

Dietmar

Isopropyl nitrate? Just a guess...

Morris

Nice looking planes. Thanks for sharing!!!!!!!!!!!

I get as much flying time per unit cost with my diesels. I get almost three times the run per tank.

To minimize the stink of the fuel residue in the engine I hang my planes by the tail, double bag the engine and cowl with trash bags, the outside bag has a can of oil dry of kitty litter in it to absorb the odor that makes it through the inner bag. Helps a lot. You don't notice the odor unless you get your nose right next to the bags.

Yeah, and you wonder why more people don't fly diesels... You've got to use hazmat protocols just to minimize the STINK from the engine. Same reason I haven't gone gas.

Isopropyl Nitrate - helps with ignition in diesel fuels.

Malcolm

Personally, I like the smell of diesel fuel - to me it's much nicer than glow fuel.

Having said that, most of my power flying nowadays is with glow engines.

Malcolm

Never thought of the kitty litter idea. What I do find a help is t

pipe the exhaust away from the airframe using a bit of plastic tube. You still get a smatter or two on the tail assembly, but baby wipe take care of that (handy for cleaning up babies as well :) ). Then stick a wad of baby wipe into the open end of the pipe to act as a wic and hang up the plane by the front leg

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I like your baby wipe idea. I will try that! Thanks,

:rolleyes: I just got into diesels one convertion type and one russia

made uckam 1.5ccm that i cant understand the manual but after readin

10,000000000000 post on starting a diesel i got it down pat stil wish could read the russian manual lol anyway i have a lot of fun with th engines i have the cox TD .049 convertion sure has the power and runs 7x4 prop with ease and the 1.5 ccm uses a 8x4 or a 9x3 prop has all th power a .15 or .25 glow engine has plus more and i found that eithe can be found at a john deer tractor place 80% pure so its still ou there. Oh one more hint i found for you guys still useing Rubber bands to kee you wings on after your done flying for the day remove the rubber bang and place in a zip lock bag with kitty litter it will remove all fue and oil and can be used more then once belive me i do :rolleyes

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Yep, I fly diesel and I also use kitty litter or Safe T Sorb in a Ziploc bag to store my used rubber bands.