Sport_Pilot

I am out of the hobby right now, But plan on coming bac when the kids are through with college and debts paid off,. But I use the model CA glue for household repairs and went to the local Hobby Town to restock on glue and noticed that they had no glow engines, I mentioned that to the sales person and he said that they had some on order, He stated that the previous manager went all electric and though that worked for a while the sales later went way down, so they are now back into selling glow engines.

MJD

My Feedback: (1)

Glow never went away.. sounds like short-sighted thinking by the store manager.

JPMacG

My Feedback: (2)

Eventually glow will come back. Modelers are sheep - they move as a herd. Everyone is going to gasoline now and the industry is making money selling gas engines. In five or 10 or 20 years when the hobby is saturated with gas engines and sales are down there will be a push back to glow. And everyone will be buying new glow engines.

aspeed

In 10 to 20 years we will all be in the old folks homes and won't have room for the gas planes.

jeffie8696

I think/hope people will realize how fragile electrics are and move back to good old tough as nails glow engines. Crash an electric and you are buying a new motor, crash a glow and you have a good chance of saving the engine.

Mpizpilot

My Feedback: (45)

except 10 or 20 years from now glow fuel will be even more expensive, and gas engines will be even lighter, mostly use EFI(no carb tuning) and still use pump gas

JPMacG

My Feedback: (2)

I would bet exactly the opposite (price of gas versus methanol). But then if my crystal ball worked I would have bought Microsoft stock in the 1980s.

ThunderBoat42

My Feedback: (1)

Never left glow. Addicted to the smell. LOL. Our LHS keeps them in stock. Mainly the Evolution but locally they as as popular as the K&B once was. Favorites here are K&B Sportster, YS and Saito four cycles.

jeffie8696

Fortunately my buddy Bruce owns brucercengines.com. We trade back and forth all the time, go to swap meets support each others addiction to methanol.

Granpooba

My Feedback: (5)

Personally this person will never be in an old folks home ! But at my age, 10 to 20 years from now I will probably be taking a dirt nap.

Then I will not care what happens with both my glow and gas engines.

rexbirk

I love my YS 110 and my two 91ac's but hate the mess. I fly mostly 30cc and 50cc gas and some small electrics. I too love the smell of a glo engine. Every time one is started up I try to get behind it to take in the aroma! lol.

slapshot1997

All I fly right now is glow. It's easier to deal with than gas engines and I don't have to worry about lipo fires - or the expense of lipo batteries for that matter. I used to think that electric would be safer than gas or glow engines - but now I think the opposite. Over the past season at my club there were a few guys that unintentionally mangled their fingers / hands on electrics - I'm not certain any gas or glow guys got hurt over the past season where I fly. When it comes to starting a glow or gas engine - there is more of a "ritual" - you know you're about to light that thing up so you're prepared to stay out of the way. I know electrics have to be "armed" - but I almost look at those things like loaded guns - they can engage at any time. That being said I am impressed by how far electrics have come - some of the ones flown at my field will keep up with my glow fuel stuff very well - and the electrics are much more quiet.

loopdeeloop

My Feedback: (4)

I get the giggles from fellow aviators when I tie down my big gassers (Decathlon and Extra 300) and fire them up. If I have the airplanes tail pointed at the open doors of my trailer the exhaust triggers the smoke alarm in the trailer. Nice to know the alarm is that sensitive. I have two and four stroke nitro engines as well and have rid myself of my electrics. Electrics are convenient and obviously there is no tuning or exhaust to clean up. But an airplane that doesn't have an engine is simply not fun for me.

rcguy59

My Feedback: (8)

The decline of electric at your LHS had nothing to do with glow coming back. The selection and price of electric stuff on the internet far exceeds what any LHS can manage. I have gotten rid of all of my larger glow engines and replaced them with gassers. I still have a fairly large stash of .55 and smaller glow engines that I will probably never get rid of, simply because I see no use for electrics except for a few specialised purposes. In my experience, gas engines are just as much trouble as glow engines, just different sorts of trouble. The only clear advantages to gas are the lack of slime and the availability of very large displacement engines. I think the decline of glow has more to do with today's trend of airplanes getting larger by the year. The other end of the hobby, park-flyers, would have a very limited selection of glow engines to choose from these days. In fact, if it weren't for electric, the "park-flyer" type of airplane would never even have evolved. Much as I love my 1/2A's, they certainly aren't for everybody, especially a noob that has never run an engine or built a kit.

Phoenixangel

There will always be people like me. I need glow engines on my rc planes and cars. I know it's just me but electric power makes them seem more like toys and less like a hobby grade product as well. So I love my messy, noisy,smelly glow engines. My car always smells like fuel and that is a good thing.

Lightspeed1551

My Feedback: (4)

Glow will always be around, but with electric motors and engines like this, I see it becoming more of a novelty.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXDUWC&P=ML

ThunderBoat42

My Feedback: (1)

I admit I was looking at that this morning for a project. I decided to stick w the YS 120 on glow sitting on the shelf. It's just so reliable and idles so well.

geeter

My Feedback: (110)

i have always had glow planes. i have three a .90 evo, a 100 1 cu.in evo and a os .46 glow. plus two electrics and a swift 16 electric 500 size heli and a hawk 30 size nitro heli. i think a combo is a good thing i also had a 20 cc gas ,but sold it. between the nitro and electric i can stunt, hover and fly quite fast with my stryker . about 80-85 mph. so i'm sticking with glo for now and only have a few lipo battries to charge that way. i couldn't haul a big bag of lipo battries around like some guys in the club...........RON GO WITH THE GLOW

Sport_Pilot

Gas costs more than methanol. Since methanol is made from natural gas it will be even cheaper then, Decrease the price and percentage of oil in glow fuel and it could be much cheaper.

rcguy59

My Feedback: (8)

Come up with an affordable glow engine that doesn't require so much oil and nitro and then the price of methanol matters.

jeffie8696

I actually fly more electrics than glow, they are quiet, clean, convenient and I can fly them in my front yard. However I have an addiction to methanol so when I fly at the club I always bring my glow engines. They are messy, loud, inconvenient and I just cant get enough of them .

rcguy59

My Feedback: (8)

+1

Sport_Pilot

I have engines that don't need nitro now. Add roller bearings to the rod end, and harder ball bearings, or the newer oils they now have in Europe and you could cut the oil at least in half.

Mpizpilot

My Feedback: (45)

Im sure over 90% of the people flying glow are not making their own fuel! myself included. All I can tell you is a gallon of regular unleaded is $3.69. A gallon of nitro,$20 +. I fly both, glow up to 1.00 size, gas after that. My favorite engine of all time was the Saito 1.80, but it was a fuel hog and liked the good stuff. Nowadays, it's a DLE 20cc for that size airplane.

jeffie8696

I have settled on medium sized glow engines for the most part and fuel cost isn't much of a consideration. Especially when I fly my small 4S engines, they are gas mizers. My new 4 Star 20 is powered by an OS26Surpass.