flycatch

My Feedback: (26)

Nitro will not die but finding a distributor is getting harder. I use nothing but VP 20/20 for all my glow engines and now I just switched to Byron RotoRage 20/23 due to cost. The last time I purchased fuel it was running $27.50 a gallon witch includes the HAZMAT shipping cost. Now the same VP fuel is $35 dollars a gallon. The Byron fuel is $8 dollars less so I decided to switch manufactures. If you need a vendor than go to HeliProz for a selection of Byron and VP fuels.

049flyer

My Feedback: (18)

I recently stopped by a local auto parts store that catered to the hot rod, race, motor head crowd. They stocked VP Fuels products and assured me that they were able to special order glow fuel with their next methanol order. They were also quite happy to sell methanol by the gallon as long as I brought my own container.

So glow fuel may be available in your area but you may have to seek out non-traditional suppliers. I have also mixed my own fuel from castor and nitro purchased online, mixed with locally obtained methanol.

Pretty easy to modify any obtainable fuel blend by adding methanol or oil as necessary to get the blend you want. I often buy anything the hobby shop sells and modify to what I want. Car fuel, heli fuel, FAI, or 4 stroke fuels can all be used and modified.

It's really very easy to get fuel if you are able to "think outside the box".

geeter

My Feedback: (110)

I think glow wi be around for a while . Electric is ok but the only electric that I like are funjets and strykers. I have had these. I go right back to glo because I don't like foam planes either. Electric helis yes. I have one gas 20 cc plane and with gas engines getting popular and smaller people are buying them. Don't like the smell of gas? Use premix called true fuel , no ethonal either with is no good for carbs in the long run. It comes in quarts at 40- 50-1 , if your engine calls for 32-1 mix in about 1/4 oz more oil per quart. That's it except it costs 5.00 per quart. Take your pick and fly what you like but I'm a glo , gas man myself. Charging battries all day ain't my thing I guess........LOL....., RON

spiceflyer

hahaha thank you.... I feel the same.. I love building and flying my planes.. Ive been building a gp ultimate 40 bipe for the last 6 years on and off.. its time get my planes back in the air.

Cjkuehl

I am returning to flying after a 15 year break. All my gear was sold or given away and now that I am rebuilding the fleet I have no interest In glo engines. Smaller electric planes work great and for the bigger planes I will go gasoline powered.

Another thing to consider is noise. It seems more and more people move out to the country next to a shooting range or flying field and then complain about the noise.

I think glo power will get less and less popular but still be around for a long time.

Gizmo-RCU

My Feedback: (27)

A friend flew his little glo powered plane at the field the other day and spent agout the same ammount of time cleaning the cold Castor oil off the sticky plane, re-enforced my decision to quit glow........Gas only for me.

JimmyZep

I hope glow will be around for a long time.

I cant stand electric planes, cant ever see getting one.

A big part of this hobby for me is the engines.

Some day when I grow up I hope to get a Moki 5 cyl radial.

So, glow or gas only for me.

Jimmy

aspeed

I like the leckies for indoors. I could be persuaded to go electric for outside too, but I have so many glow motors that are really good. Gas does not do it for me, you need a big plane, longdr to assemble, need a van to bring it, or worse, a trailer, it will not store easily in the basement, hard to work on in the small shop, and the noise is much louder, and it carries farther because of the low pitch. I suppose the higher pitch is more annoying to some, but I like it better. I lived about a mile from a field, and could never hear the glow, just the big gassers. In my case, it just meant that someone was at the field, and I could pester them, but I know the other neighbors did not like the noise.

Gizmo-RCU

My Feedback: (27)

The new OS gassers, 10 and 15 cc behave and run very close to similar glow engines, much cleaner and I think they make gas, not burn it, very thrifty. Pricy is the only drawback!

oliveDrab

I converted 3 of my glow planes to electric 6 years ago and have been flying electric only since then, 'cept for a jet. The sound my electric planes make as they fly overhead is awesome. While I do miss the snarling sound of my O.S. 91 4-stroke, the whooshing/whining of my .60-sized AXI-powered electric planes is really cool.

A few electric tips:
- buy a good charger.
- don't over-discharge your batteries by flying full throttle all the time.
- be safe with your Lipo batteries. I transport and store my Lipos in a ammo can.
- mount the correct sized prop for your motor/esc/battery/airframe. I toasted an ESC because a I mounted a prop that drew too much current.

Since I'm a neat freak, electric planes fit into my lifestyle ... although the smell of nitro brings back found memories of my O.S. engines - .61 Fx 2-stroke, .75 2-stroke, .91 4-stroke, and 1.20 4-stroke.

loopdeeloop

My Feedback: (4)

10% nitro in my area has never been over $20. A shop in northwest Des Moines, IA two weeks ago had 10% at $13/gallon.

Jetset

My Feedback: (2)

To me there's more to the hobby then buying an electric foamie, take it home charge it and fly it. I do realize there are larger and more complicated electrics too.
A big part of the hobby is the engines to me. You just wouldn't get the same feeling of spending months building something then throw an electric motor on it as you would putting on a gas/nitro engine and firing it up for the first time! There's something about that feeling when your your new baby "FIRES UP" for the first time!
Over the years I've had tons of glow models but when I got into helicopters I learned on nitro,then I changed to petrol only for them for the simplicity.
I tried electrics to see what the hype was, and there was no hype for me.

MTK

Pattern fliers are a different breed of cat. This facet of the hobby is primarily for flying, not building like it used to be. ARFs for electric power are about all that's available to us who fly Pattern. The vast majority of Pattern fliers just assemble their ARFies, pop in the electric motor and radio and are flying in a minimum of time. Nobody brings their gasoline powered generators to the field anymore (sort of an oxymoron wasn't it?). They bring a dozen home charged 5S packs and fly as long as they need.

There are hardly any wood kits available anymore for the very few of us remaining that still love the challenge of gluing sticks together. If one wants a wood kit, he just about has to create it himself.

So what's a dyed in the wool Pattern guy do who loves gas and glow and will not do electric? I simply convert what's available in electric to gasoline. It takes experience with building to do that which I have lots of. The electric glass/foam composite models are more lightly built so reinforcements at key areas should be done. That doesn't mean a lot of weight built up and It's no big deal to actually do, so I don't want to hear that there are no ARF models for glow or gas available. Any of them are convertible......

TomCrump

I don't mean to single you out, other than to use your post to make my observation. It illustrates how vast and varied our interests can be.

I agree about the electrics for indoors. There isn't much choice. I have discovered how easy outdoor electrics can be, having 3 or 4.

I love having planes large enough that they require a trailer, or a pickup at a bare minimum. If a model would fit in my car, i wouldn't enjoy it.

Field assembly for large models isn't any more difficult than it is for smaller ones. Bolting on a wing is bolting on a wing.

I built and stored giant scale models when I lived in a mobile home. Having a basement of any sort was a wonderful dream, for me.

I do admit that I don't care for the high pitched scream of a glow two stroke, I do enjoy the music made by four strokes.


My point is that we all enjoy different things. My current build is a 121", glow powered, Luscombe. I got the plans from a friend. He had planned to go electric, but was disaatisfied with the flying time aloted by the $100+ batteries that it required.

rodman293

My Feedback: (136)

well the rest of you guys can have glow fuel as for me I got rid of all my glow engines years ago to messy, unreliable, and too costly to run at $21.00 a gallon for glow (5%) fuel, I am a GASOLINE engines advocate , with the new generation of 10, 15, 20,cc gasoline engines out in the market today, why would any body go with glow ? and as far as electrics are concerned you can keep them too, batteries are too expesive, they dont give you any more than 8-10 minutes of flying time and the li-pos are far from being cost effective for flying, gasonie is the way to go if you want to keep the cost of flying your models with in a reasonable cost, gasoline is cheap ($2.13 P/gallon) , they are very reliable and now they come in zises from .60 on up and are cheaper and cleaner running than glow will ever be, and the sound is just as sweet sounding as any glow engine will ever be, there is no down side , all are up sides, so is glow on the way out? , I sure think so, yes it is.

chip_MG

My Feedback: (14)

I for one am enjoying guys switching to electric and Gas. Why, because they are selling their glow engines for a song right here on RCU. It's has been a gold mine for me, I have snapped up so many valuable engines that I don't know what do with them all. I mean almost new OS max 61's $40, a os max 120fs pumped for $75, unbelievable. I Love Glow and Gas too. I will never fly electric, they seem too toy like to me. What gets me is the guys that fly those Styrofoam birds. I know It's a hobby but for me Styrofoam is for cups or packing material only. Good for making wings too but I gotta cover and them first. I don't mean it as put down, it's just not my ideal of the hobby. Keep selling them, I'll buy em, and fly em.

Tailwheel Pilot

My Feedback: (2)

I fly glow the most. I have a couple of small electrics but they don't do much for me.

geeter

My Feedback: (110)

I like your idea of gas engines. I have a vvrc 20 cc gas on a big stick really it's a 60 size stick and has good performance with the 20cc. Gas is cheap and use regular 87 oct, fuel and pennsoil outdoor. No expensive true fuel or syn, oil either and your engine will run the same. Gas is good.

Jetset

My Feedback: (2)

WOW, I din't even know that OS came out with these smaller gassers. very impressive! I could see building a twin warbird with a couple of those 10cc's. P-38 would be nice!

ECX-INXS

Here's my 3 cents, I'm a 44 year old new to the rc world for the most part,a few responses here have sparked a few questions. I've been to my local hobby store too support local mom and pops. I got kicked to the curb,gas,nitro,electric etc. New,to life long rc enthusiast you should all embrace a newbie. I understand the questions get annoying and so many newbies turn away after a month.did they ever think shunning the newbies instead of embracing them is a big cause of the walk away newbies? I was almost ready to say eff it. To be honest had I not saw a rc sparks video on YouTube I would have found another new hobby. Now I gave that store 4 chances at my business. I've spent 350 there and over 5,000 online. That 5000 could have been 7000 in sales to the local guy easy. And I would have loved acceptance to their group to hang out and bs, learn from my piers etc. Instead I fly on my property and I've built my own 1800 foot dirt track for my trucks. So the moral of the story is, who cares if it's nitro,glow fuel,electric or a rubber band and string. Rc'ING is a dieing sport that can not afford to turn away a potential newbie with their clicks and attitudes. Baton Rouge hobby Townes the guilty party. I hope they see this. It's a true mom and pop. Mom and dad and their son operate the store for 40 years. It's a shame I was turned away and short answered in my 4 attempts. Now those who say it's not dieing, take drones away and it's dead. Don't get me started with the drone shunning in the rc world. Educate, don't critisize.
Thanks for letting me vent. Sorry for taking up so much space.
I'm electric btw. No nitro allowed on my property, too loud. It was tough enough getting my wife to allow a 7k track build. Nitro had no chance. Lol

stegl

Have done it all over the last 40 years of RCing from .020 up to 25cc glow. No gas as at the time when running the size of aircraft just magneto gas engines and harder to start and more vibration. Stayed with glow up to 6 years ago and switched to electric. Also did a comparison for those getting back into RC and don't think there is much difference between starting out with all electric or all fuel when under 90 size aircraft. Price is pretty much the same. as for flying time if the right motor, prop and battery combination is used you can get good flying times like up wards of 15 minutes. There are pros and cons for both methods of powering models.
Then there is the consideration of noise at flying sites and more and more sites are becoming noise conscious . All I can say is do what makes your prop spin and keeps the neighbours happy.... LOL

MTK

There are facets of the hobby that use nitro fuels extensively: Helis, CL Stunt and Racing come to mind. But electrics are making inroads.

There are other facets of the hobby that have become dominated by electrics: Pattern comes immediately to mind. Possibly car racing

Yet other facets use neither nitro nor electricity: IMAC comes immediately to mind which uses petrol nearly exclusively. And really anything quarter scale and larger. Neither electricity nor nitro are practical for very large models.

Is nitro on its way out? I'd have to say no, at least not quite yet. I tend to think of the hobby as allowing us all more options than we ever had before.

hairy46

My Feedback: (1)

I have enough glow engines to get me through the next hundred years, but am dabbling in gas now!

fredsedno

Are we missing something ? What about "DIESEL"?

Could this be a potential source of fuel, with a little of experimenting and trial and research with various motors?
Just curious, diesel is relatively inexpensive and plentiful. Check out the diesel forum, maybe those folks know something that
we don't. Discount the naysayers and keep an open mind. Just think of all those nitro engines to modify and the expense of buying new.

fredsedno

Gizmo-RCU

My Feedback: (27)

Tried Diesel once, hated the oil slime, ran well, but left a reall mess.