Engine runs backwards

When I was growing up I was the one kid in the neighborhood that could make the glow engines run. This was because I always had fresh fuel, a good battery (bought D cells when they were on sale cheap, and soldered 8 in parallel) and understood richer=/= better.

One day Mark Claudfelter brought over a plastic cox RTF plane to see if I could make it run.(Can't recall which flavor, Stuka maybe???)

It fired up right away, but was "missing" something fierce. It was running in about half second bursts. Braaap-braaaap-braaap....

Turned out he had bent the spring starter in such a way that it was catching the prop both directions. It would run forward, wrap up the spring, then start in reverse, wrap up the spring, start forward, wash rinse repeat. Dangdest thing, only time I have ever had an engine run _both_ directions.

I could make the engines run alright, but living in Denver, most of them flew poorly if at all due to altitude related power loss. The PT-19s were OK, and the Bushmaster was fairly hot. I think those things soured more of my friends on airplanes than girls and cars put together.

On a related note, a lot of the old dirt bikes were reed valved. One joke was to push start the things backward, then offer to let your buddy ride it.