I don’t think that I’m actually lean as I made a mistake of backing off H speed needle after achieving the peek RPM. The engine sounds like the nitro motor that is loading up.
I wonder what the absolute lowest L needle setting is.
Is anybody flying with settings similar to mine?
PS;
I’m about 170m above sea level.
I run 45:1 fuel mix.

Originally Posted by Coolheli

My rear carb DLE30 runs perfect on the ground.
Excellent idle, smooth transition, good mid range and strong top end.
Up in the air is totally different, up and down transition is very unstable.
My needle settings at the moment are Low - 5/8 High – 1 and 7/8.
I would appreciate your input.

Coolheli, the symtoms you are seeing are very common. This is likely an engine that is running rich due to the cowl pressurizing in flight, because of airspeed. Do a searh on "diaphram vents" and you will find a ton information on correcting this.

Cowl is already off.
I’ve read about the pressure issues and took it off to confirm that this is not a problem in my case.
To the field I go.
I’ll retune and try again.

mine gave me tuning fits, tried all the fixes. come to find out a brand new nimh batt i had installed was not delivering the power required. I would get it good on the ground, take off and it would act like it was loading up. after messing with the needles forever i came to the conclusion the ignition must be overheating.....i was wrong. it was just the stupid batt. take a test on batt voltage right after it acts up. not saying this is it, but sure worth a try.

After more testing today I’m even more confused.
The only time I got this thing to run half decent was when I put the original spark plug back in.
With the NGK it spits and quits like crazy.
Now I got the question. Is the vent hole on the carb suppose to face forward (being exposed to prop wash) or backward?

Guys, please post your needle settings with the prop used.
Thank you in advance.

You can put the hole where ever it seems to work best or vent it. You can fly with the cowl off to do a test to see if that is the problem or not first. As for the needles I cannot remember where mine are. I haven't heard of a bad NKG plug, it it gapped at 18 to 20 thou? The thickness of a number 11 Xacto blade it about 20 thou if you don't have feeler gauges.

Edit: I just seen you have tried it with the cowl off. One more note, you do have the plug cap all the way on do you? It should completely cover the hex part of the sparkplug. That is the number one nubie mistake.

I checked the gap several times with the filer gauge and I open it a touch more from factory 18 thou to 20 now.
Original Chinese DLE plug gap is 26 thou.
With that plug and 18x8 prop I was getting a very stable and power full upper half of the throttle range
That set up would peek just over 8000rpm on the ground.
I’ll change the prop from 18x8 to 19x8 turn around the carb plate so it doesn’t face the air stream and retest.

Very interesting.....how did the engine run when you got done changing things? Capt,n

Runs like a champ on the ground.
Needle settings are totally different as well.In flight test comming up.