aquaskiman

My Feedback: (46)

I have a MKIII in a starfire and want to use a wand starter to save the 5 oz that the FOD and starter weigh; Ron Ballard has told me that they are not available any more. Does any one know where one might be found? Thanks George

minigypo

just make one with the old motor from your onboad one.

Jet20

My Feedback: (2)

George,

Give JHH a call (562)-467-0260, we may have something.


Chris

essendon_05

I know weight is weight, but from experience dont waste your time with the wand. If you can fit the FOD screen and starter set up on your engine in your installation for 5oz, do what we do with the manual start turbines- just have an external battery pack with a deans plug or a neat electrical plug of your choice with the other end obviously soldered into the wire going to the starter motor. works a treat. Install a micro switch so you can vary the speed/ initiate spooling the turbine on start or whilst cooling proportionally to pressure when depressed. Wand works fine, but its a lot easier to pop your hatch, connect the external battery up and start/ cool turbine than fiddle around trying to make square contact with the wand on the compressor nut. My 2 cents worth.
Cheers.

Boomerang1

I'm with essendon 05. I have a pair of 44's and converted one of them to FOD screen/on board starter, I would not even bother about the 5OZ.

If you are desperate to save the weight the wand starter is literally just a motor on a stick, just remove the starter housing, put a handle on it, lock the clutch up & away you go.

After seeing the starter O ring fall out of the wand starter & roll around inside a model close to the intake of a running engine [X(] I made up my mind that there had to be a better way. - John

aquaskiman

My Feedback: (46)

I have had both types of starters on my engines and don’t mind the wand start at all. I have 3MKIII now, 5 oz doesn’t seem like much weight to some, but when you are at 15 lbs 12 oz dry weight on a plane with 620 sq in of wing every little bit helps. George

sidgates

My Feedback: (2)

George- I am in the process of converting my TG F-15 to turbine using my RAM 500. The original starter on the RAM has been a problem and the cost to convert to the heavier Bendix is nearly $300.00 so wanting to save money and weight and add a FOD screen I made my wand shown below. I have made two bench runs with this set up but has not been flown yet. Picture No. 1 is with FOD screen in running position. Pic #2 FOD screen is hinged and shown in start position. My Start Wand has a fiberglass shell that fits the nose of the RAM 500 to hold it straight during the starting process. I plug the Wand Starter motor into the normal starter cable of the ECU so I can use the normal auto start feature. The rest of the pictures are the starting wand.

I hope to fly the F-15 at Chatfield when we get some flying weather.

DocYates

My Feedback: (102)

I have a wand here somewhere, which I do not use. I sent mine back in and had them add a third line which I hook to a compressed air tank. I use compressed air, it works much better than the starter wand, and you can hook it up to cool off the engine when you shut it down. If you are desperate for a starter wand, let me know and I will see if I can find it for you.

aquaskiman

My Feedback: (46)

Doc I would appreciate that. George

aquaskiman

My Feedback: (46)

Sid I will see you there. Not very good jet weather lately. George

Aero65

My Feedback: (2)

Hi Sid

Great idea on the alignment tool for the wand! I did not think of pluging the starter to the auto start... very cool.

Aloha Duke

Jetpilot24

My Feedback: (21)

George

I have one that I would be willing to part with. It came from an mkII that i switched to full auto start. Drop me a PM with your Phone #

Joe L.