nrthwing

Most of the guys at the field are converting to electric. Is this your future?
Mike

nrthwing

And why?

lackeyma

My Feedback: (4)

I sure hope not!

dhal22

a large percentage of members at the club i'm a member of fly 100cc or greater sized planes. not many electrics in that range.

Bruno Stachel

My Feedback: (4)

I'd love to go all electric, but the cost needs to come down for me. As a far I can see, a good quality motor, speed controler, and battery still cost more than glow. When I go to the field, I like to get at least 5 flights in. In order to do that, I need to buy an extra battery or two, if not more. Even then I'm still waiting for recharges between flights. Or I could buy 5 battery packs, one for each flight. $$$$$$$$$ I think lipo prices will eventually come down to a point where I may well convert to battery power. For now I'll always have at least one glow model to keep me flying, while I wait to batteries to cool and recharge.

blhollo2

My Feedback: (278)

Nope I'm glow fuel/ Gas fuel til i die...nothing is better to me than the sound of a r/c 4 stroke engine...Battery packs are WAY over priced...and so is the price of nitro...however nitro is still cheaper than even a 1 cell battery pack yes even from Hobbyking.com..and I dont have to worry about it blowing up and burning my house down

jclaude

Hi,

In my club, one year ago, there were only three members who had switched to electric propulsion. I am one of those. Today, 80% of the members have converted their models to electric propulsion.

In June, at our last meeting, there were only 5% of glow engines.

Shortly, I think that in our club, the glow engines have completely disappeared...

Personally, I chose to convert all my models for several reasons.

First, F3A enthusiast, I follow the early evolution of this drive on this kind of models. When I saw the power available and heard the noise of those engines, I was convinced. Unfortunately, at that time, the price was too high for my budget.

Then, I was particularly disappointed with the purchase of my last glow engine, much less potent than announced by the manufacturer. Note that in many cases, engine manufacturers announce the powers at high RPM that we never attain.

Then, a year ago, I discovered the materials from Asian countries, at prices more affordable. So there was only one step to go...

In practice, the first visible benefit of this type of propulsion is the cleanliness of the operation course. No oil on the model or oil drops that fall from silencer on the living room floor. The following is the noise level much lower than for a glow engine. Then, the model suffers less; there is no vibration or leakage of oil into the wood.

Finally, for someone who wants to begin directly with an electric model, I find that the basic investment is not higher than for a glow model.


Regards,

GRANT ED

At my club there are very few electrics. I feel that at the moment they are too expensive and the battery technology is not good enough to warrent changing to electric power. Once people can buy a .60 sized plane with equivalent power and batteries that can be charged faster than they are discharged for the same money or less than glo then we'll see a big shift. Untill then, I'll stay with my noise makers thanks.

flashback

My Feedback: (39)

Exactly, you cannot beat the sound of 4 stroke with electric fly.
If I swatch to something else I will convert my glow engines to spark ignition and run methanol with 5% klotz oil or gas.
I believe that soon O.S and SAITO will change all their engine to gas – just like the FG-20 and soon FG-14.

gmccord1970

I am not going to buy any more glow engines...period! Li Po batteries have come down in price to the point that one can get a 4000 mah 5s battery for $40.00 which as you know can get at least 100 cycles. Compare that to a $20 gallon of glow fuel for which I can only get 20 flights on average. Furthermore, a 650 kv 1100 watt turnigy motor sells for $25.00. It's a no brainer for me. I did the math. I am converting to electric but my only concern is how do I switch out the battery without taking off the wing. That to me is time consuming.

-Geoff

ScottMcM

My Feedback: (66)

I've been moving towards gas engines lately. I doubt I'll ever move to electric. Part of the fun of the hobby, for me anyway, are the engines. For me, nothing beats the sound of a big gasser or a twin or radial glow

gmccord1970

I've heard that there was one manufacturer (can't think of the name) are in the process of designing a 46 size gas engine. That would be great! I do admit that the sound of an engine is fun and if that happens, I am all there. $2.80 for a gallon of 87 octane versus $20.00 glow...hmmmmm.

Carpilot

Now Way! Not for me. I'm a gear head. I don't have any electric planes, I used to have a stryker but i don't even have one of those anymore.

rambler53

My Feedback: (494)

I'll give you my glow engines when you take it from my cold, dead hands.

50+AirYears

We do have more club members ADDING electric to their inventory. We also have maybe 2 or 3 newer flyers on electric. But then more people are adding gas engines to their fleets, and we now have at least 3 turbine flyers. I've had electric powered planes lying since around 1990, back when even one electronic engineer in the club had given up on them. I found ways to get flights of longer than 5 minutes, after he had told me they'd never be practical.

There's a few guys still remember when a competition weightlifting team from a nearby University tried their plane at our field. They were impressed by the power, but concerned that the prop noise at 9' peaked at over 110 dbA. That was louder than any of our glow and most gas engines. Those same people have looked into getting electric, but only see a cost benefit in the smaller ranges. Most of us who have looked into cost issues can't see spending the money to replace and re-power our current planes. Staying with glow (and/or gas) is definitely cheaper and easier than replacing everything, plus getting the special chargers andother support equipment. Not to mention the relative complexity of trying to figure out a suitable electric product mix to replace a given size glow or gas engine with an electric motor, ESC, proper battery configuration, prop size. then having an adequate number of battery packs. Then trying to make sure to modify a structure to ensure adequate cooling to the ESC and battery pack.

Like I say, I have both glow and electric (and some diesel, rocket, CO2, compressed air, rubber). As long as fuel, or it's components, are available, glow will be my mainstay. And, I will also fly electric. But, for my type of flying,I haven't found electric as practical as glow. Sure, I've had a couple ERCs that can get 14-16 minutes flying time, but if I'm not very careful for the last couple minutes, and blow a landing, I often haven't had the power left in the battery packs for a go around. With glow, I have full power as long as there is fuel in the tank. Then when I land, if I want to go right back up, I can with glow just bring the plane to my parking spot in the pits, fuel up in a minute or two, restart, and be back in the air in maybe 3 or 4 minutes, sometimes less. With most of my electrics, recycling like that means bring the plane back to the pits, remove the wing, with it's attendant rubber bands or nylon screws, find and disconnect the battery pack, remove it, check to see if it's warm, set it aside to cool before recharging, install a second battery pack, reinstall the wing, worry that the ESC might be getting too hot, then get back to the flight line to fly. Then unless I have a real load of similar packs, after the next flight, remember to connect the cooled used pack to a charger, which ties up the charger for anywhgere from 15 minutes to an hour or more depending on capacity, go through the pack change procedure again, and fly. I think with 4 packs one flying session, I was able to get about 5 or 6 flights in the course of a day, because it took longer than one flight cycle to charge a pack. With glow, in the same time, it's not uncommon for me to get in 9 or more flights in the same time period, and I once had a .15 powered RC plane that gave me 11 22 minute flights in one day.

Switching to electric for me might be almost affordable for the smaller planes, but to get that kind of flying with my 7.5 pound .60 powered Super Sportster is far beyond what I can afford on my retirement income.

Besides, I've never had an experience with glow that I had one day with electric. I had several E planes with me, and a couple chargers for the battery packs. End of a very active flying day, I watched the last member start driving down the access road before I (Tried) to start my car. Thanks to the number of battery recharges I did that day, my car battery was dead. Luckily, the other member had a thought that he had forgotten something, so he turned back. And I (almost) always have a set of good jumper cables in my car. That was in the days before I had a cell phone, too.

Cpt Crash

My Feedback: (12)

I fly both electric and glow. They both have advantages and disadvantages. For midsize to large aircraft, I find glow more practical and less of a hassle. For parkflyers and training, electric is hard to beat. I have a PZ Typhoon that's my daily trainer for morning flights before work, and then a stable of nitro airplanes for weekend fun. For people who want to try the hobby, I think it's much easier with the wide variety of electrics. They can get started with something that doesn't cost much, and later move up to nitro and even gas.

Trends will always develop. Recently, there seems to have been a movement in the direction of big gas ignition planes. Everyone seems to be trying a 50cc or 100cc aerobatic machine. I'm sure eventually this will settle in to become just another segment of our hobby. It's all good.

50+AirYears

I'd guess that in my remaining lifetime, ( estimated 5 minutes to 30 years) there'll still be a large number of glow powered planes sharing the air with electrics, gas, and turbines. And Rubber, Diesel, CO2, Compressed Air, and Model Rockets. And Hand Launch, Hi-Start, Catapault, and Tow Line!

My personal feeling is that some of the unsafe flying techniques I've seen in a couple parks from E-powered independant park flyers will be more of a problem for model airplane flying than any other type of power. Club members who refuse to follow local rules don't help, either. Not the power plant itself, but the attitude of a few flyers. They've already caused the banning of any type of flying, including, it seems, kites, as well as RC cars and boats, in any public park or parking lots, in several near-by communities. Copping attitudes only gets one stepped on.