I have recently purchased a booster kit for my SOLO engined Castelluccio Mach 3, which consisted of the following (see pic below)

Since fitting it I have not had the chance to see if it truly does what the manufacturer says it can because I have been beset with problems that I thought was down to the new kit, so as you can imagine I was starting to feel a little bit peed off.The problems I had been having (I say had because I have now resolved them) were flooding of the engine, spark plug very wet, and the damn thing just refusing to start, the most frustrating thing was that every time I tried to turn the engine over with the pull cord I damn near lifted the entire machine off the deck because the compression was so strong, this in turn gave me blisters on my little finger which made pulling the cord very painful as the blisters popped and got sorer, this had been happening for some time but seemed more so after I fitted the new kit, I thought it was the new high compression head that was the problem and thought that I would now have to shell out for a special de-compressor, this problem was becoming damned annoying for me especially when I was out in the field hoping to fly, I tried to trouble shoot the problem by doing the usual things such as check the electric's/wiring. Taking the spark plug out and cleaning it and even replacing it with a new one, replaced the spark plug cap because it looked damaged, on the advice of my mechanic I drained and dried out everything over night and then tried it the next day in my garden before I set off for the T/O site, EXCELLENT! it worked fine, get to the site and it won't start (b****y thing) I even tried kicking it a couple of times (as you do) but it didn't help.

I was at the end of my tether when I telephoned a fellow pilot friend called Geoff Tomlin who lives about 5 miles from me outside Oxford, he has been paramotoring for a long time and seems to be pretty genned up on SOLO engines, he said he would come round and see if he could help, when he arrived we started on setting up the carb; High and low jets, tick over etc.; changed spark plug and it fired up, still hard to pull over though, anyway we got it running sweet , EXCELLENT! Thanks very much Geoff, and off he went, one thing he did mention before he left was that he thought it very possible that the de-compressor hole was blocked, hence the difficulty in using the pull cord, and said I should really investigate it further, but of course! I didn't know anything about that sort of thing, as I v'e only been Paramotoring for 6 months and even though I had to virtually rebuild the damn thing from scratch when I purchased it , there was obviously still a lot I had to learn, he told me that you have to take the head off to sort it out, which didn't exactly fill me with joy, having just put the new head on I really didn't fancy having to start tripping everything out again, so I said I would try it as it was first .

Next day I started it up in my garden, worked fine, EXCELLENT! We've sorted it,? Still a bit windy, so I waited until late afternoon before heading off to the site, got there about 5.pm, wind was blowing just right, unloaded all the gear and laid out the canopy, primed the carb; and pulled the cord, nothing, tried again, nothing, and again and again, and again, teach time nearly lifting the machine off the ground as I pulled, hands are sore, I'm hot and sweating in my flying suit, I give up, bl***dy booster kit, Another £280 wasted, I'm jacking this stupid sport in! I'm going home! the wind had died anyway, and I hate forward launches. I stuffed all the gear back in the car, drove home, chucked it all in the corner, drunk some beer and went to bed early. Forget about it.

Next day phoned Geoff again, told him the same thing happened again and I was jacking it all in, He calmly told me that I really needed to investigate that de-compressor hole and I agreed to give it one last try, so I stripped everything and take my head of (wish I could take my head off as it has some pain in it from last nights beer, still! those tablets should kick in soon) anyway, off came the head and I look for the hole, ,what hole? I can't see no hole, what's he on about! All I can see is a little round black mark like someone has put a speck of black paint on the side of the barrel to mark it for some reason, on closer inspection with a 3mm drill (as Geoff told me) a hole starts to open up and gets bigger and bigger until the drill is about 15 mm into the wall of the barrel, it was completely blocked, then I get the 4 mm drill and fumble about up inside the exhaust port (oooooh! my ed hurts when I look up like that) until I find the other end of the hole and clear that as well, just for good measure I thread some wire right the way through and give it a good routing, EXCELLENT! That seemed very easy! I clean everything and put the head back on, I tighten up the bolts very, very, carefully so as not to strip the threads in the head, ( Geoff told me to be very careful as they are easy to strip)

While I'm at it I decide to sort other things out that have been niggling me for some time, I make a better bracket for the exhaust and it looks nicer now, plus! It's more secure, I also tidy up the wiring and a few other bits and bobs as well, satisfied with my work I take it out in to the back yard, turn on the petrol tap and prime the carb; with the machine tilted over towards the filter so as to fill the carb; first instead of just flooding the engine (another tip from Geoff ) I then stand it vertical and give it a pull, EASY! Starts first time and sounds sweet, I stop and start it several times with ease just so I can adjust the tick over dead right, and to see if it will start easy, it does, by now the engine has warmed up nicely so I gradually whind her up till she reaches 7,200 revs, WOW! I could only get 6,200 - 6,500 before the modification., my jubilation was short lived, trouble is! More revs; does not necessarily mean more thrust, as I was told once again by Geoff, I was to find this out the following day when I took it down to the T/O field, my climb out rate was painfully slow and it took and age to get to a couple of hundred feet, so I landed back at T/O, I got the spanners out and had to adjust the prop; pitch 3 times before I got what felt like max; thrust, it was really easy with the three new MULTI -WING Nylon props; I'm now using, it now revs; at 6.800, and I think that's the best I will get, and also safer for the engine, anyway at least it gets me off the ground reasonable quickly.

I had a good hour and a halfs XC flight, and managed 1500 feet, I just popped down the road about 2 miles and waved to my mechanic mate who was busy working on his cars at his home in the country, then I wandered off another couple of miles tuther way and then back to T/O a big triangle, just in time as well, as the petrol ran out just as I was coming in to land, Excellent flight, the engine runs real sweet, I'm happy again and love my machine once more, the problem with the engine had been gradually building up over the months since I acquired the machine and had finally come to a head just as I had fitted the new kit, it was just sods law that they both coincided with each other, still! You live and learn I suppose, they say that self achievement brings happiness, and I think it's true, today I tried something new and it worked, every time I do something new on my machine and it works, I feel happier, (shame that you have to go through a lot of pain and anguish before hand though,) anyway, anyone else out there who has a similar problem and are afraid to DIY it, have a go, just proceed carefully (and preferably without a hangover) and I'm sure you will do it.

My climb out rate and airspeed is still a bit slow so I am going to try a smaller wing as at present I am using an XL Firebird Booster weight range100-135 kg with all my kit I am 5Kg below this and there seems to be a lot of drag and the controls seem rather heavy, so I am going to try my Firebird G sport which is rated at 85-105Kg, when I was using this wing for hill flying I was 5kg over the top, and used to sink out a lot compared to people that were in the middle of the weight range, I will be 25kg over the top of the weight range with my Paramotor, and according to the Keith Pickersgill theory this could be about right, I will let you know.

Thanks a lot Geoff for all your help, you gave me some very useful tips just hope I can remember them all, without them I would have been a bit miffed.

Did you know that on the side of the WALBRO carb; there is a little button that can be depressed to make priming easier?
Well I do now.

At one point we also had a problem with getting the engine to run smoothly even though we adjusted the H /L jets umpteen times it just would not run smoothly, sounded like petrol starvation, so we took off the pump cover, the and pump membrane, and found the filter to be completely block, we cleaned it out and now the engine runs perfectly.

MOTTO:- 'Act like a pheasant. Keep ya head down'

J.W. Oxford. BHPA Mem: No. 4713. Email: Av8er@lineone.net