J Lachowski
Posts: 393
Joined: 9/2/2003
From: Bridgewater,
NJ, USA
Status: offline
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Scott your are over simplifying things here.
You will need servo pots replaced sooner or later, but probably can go 2X plus as many flights per replacement. You still have to clean your plane occasionally (grass, dust, oil from inconsiderate glowies<g>  . From my experience you really need 4 sets of batteries and 5 chargers to do it right. You can then charge 4 sets of batteries plus your receiver pack in about 2 hours, otherwise you can spend all evening charging your packs. I don't believe in charging at 10S. I prefer separate 5S packs. You also need to fly 6 flights to get the equivalent practice you would get with 4 flights on a glow setup.
Scott you also forgot to mention that if you have no available power at the field, you will need a small generator if you want to fly all day. Also, contrary to belief, your electric motor/ controller may have something go wrong with it sooner or later (bearing, magnets, gear wear if using a geared system). If you're using a geared system like a Hacker C50 you will need to relube the gearbox about every 50 flights. I have relubed my Hacker twice so far. It only takes an hour or so to do including removal and installation from the airframe. Not a big deal, at least so far.
I still own only one glow plane in my whole fleet right now. Once it is sold, I will get rid of all of my glow support gear. I have made my commitment to electric. Hopefully, I won't regret it in the long run.
I have limited experience with an electric 2 meter ship, 120 plus flights so far this year. I do have many many flights on the smaller stuff though over the last 3 years. I decided on 4 sets of batteries only because I could go to the field in the evening after work and knock off 4 quick flights and go home and throw things on charge at home. On the weekends and contests, I carry my small Honda 1000i generator. In reality my up front costs were close to $4K(chargers, balancers, generator, power supply, 4 sets of Lipos). I'm a case for the extreme side, but then again I fly alot and try to opitimize my use of time. There are other things in life that need to be tended to<g>.
Oh, as far a break even with glow goes, that is questionable. A lot has to do with how you go about doing it. In some cases, you may never reach it. I personally think justifying getting into electric based on costs is fuedal. You either want to do it or you don't. At first I had my doubts until I figured out how to manage flight energy. Some people tend to try and fly electrics too slow and that is what I caught myself doing initially. I fly with large capacity packs only (5350's). Those trying to fly with anything less than 4600ma capacity packs are kidding themselves. And 4600ma is cutting it close. People try to paint electric as the greatest thing, but it is not. It requires a different mind set. It is not plug and play. You have to exercise a lot of discipline in what you do with it or it is going to bite you in the butt and some cases big time.
As far as what size plane to get. Get an Aspera or Vanquish first and then decide whether you want to go bigger at a later date. Bigger will always fly better of course. I have a Vanquish just about ready to go and from what I have read, these two airplanes fly quite well for there size.
Oh. My only sponsor is my wallet. It is almost empty<g>
< Message edited by J Lachowski -- 9/13/2007 1:58:06 PM >
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Joe Lachowski
NSRCA 330
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cost per flight hour vs. glow - 
