iflylilplanes wrote: ↑30 Jul 2023, 23:38 ... the refining is to take the smell away from the Castor. During clean up I could not smell the usual caster oil fragrance, that's a plus in my book.
Dave
Isn't the hot Castor oil smell a large part of the nostalgia ?
I can match 60 years ago flying diesel-powered FF and combat C/L 1958 to 1966. The Castor oil from local chemist worked fine, as did the ether bought by the pint from the same source; try asking for that today ! "AVPIN" additive (Isopropyl Nitrate) came from a club member who worked in the fuel section at the local RAF station. The Jets there used it for their starter turbines so they would never miss the odd 2cc. Interesting procedure and arguably "digital" - press the button and Bang, Whoosh - you enter one of only two states - running or on fire:- "Go fly" or "Run away" ! I became personally familiar with that phenomenon in my later career flying the dear old Wessex Mk1.