chip_MG

My Feedback: (14)

I don't understand why glow fuel is so high everywhere because methanol is only about $1.88 a gallon in bulk. It must just be profit taking.

stegl

Start wit the cost of a bottle which includes shipping to the manufacture site., add the label , add the nitro ( very expensive even in bulk) again shipping on that including dangerous goods handing on both the nitro and methyl hydrate , add the lubrication , add the cost of machinery to mix and take into account of maintenance and depreciation of this equipment, add labour plus some profit and you don't even have it out the manufacturing door. Add the cardboard box packaging 4 gallons per box plus handling information and flammable other stickers that go on and in each box now more shipping by truck to destination hobby store. Then the owner has to make his slice of profit on each and every gallon that goes out the door.... gallon by gallon and holds on to the rest of the inventory while the user buys gallon by gallon. He pays higher insurance because of flammable goods on the premises.

Does that help ? Most hobby store owners would likely give a small discount if say 3 or 4 cases ordered, paid for and picked up when it arrives at the store. That's were a club can get involved and try; say a 40 case order for it's members., prepay and pick up on arrival......worth making a pitch to your local hobby store. If more than one store have them make a bid.... only thing' the cash would have to be up front and not expect them to carry the load.

chip_MG

My Feedback: (14)

That's why I have been doing research. So far it looks like all the components can be had for around $5 a gallon if you go get it from the supplier yourself and buy 54 gallons or so at a time.

lonestoner

I love the nitro engine sound, electric just doesn't feel or sound right.
Combustion all the way.
Next in my chapter for kewlness is a multi cylinder 4 stroke gas 60cc ,from Saito,
Sounds better than any gas single,

KaP2011

My Feedback: (17)

Is nitro on it's way out?

No - and if it is I'm sure my big block saito's will keep Morgan fuels in business for a long time.

aspeed

Where can you get the castor, or even synthetic oil and/or nitro to make the fuel for $5? It takes almost a quart of oil to make a gallon. Diesel is ok, but the ether is a controlled substance because of the druggies. Very economical if the fuel price is kept down, as they can use about half the fuel to run when a large prop is used.

KaP2011

My Feedback: (17)

I believe what he is saying is that if you buy the components in bulk you can get the price down to about $5 a gal. I've researched as well and in my area, (N GA) I can get it down to around $13 a gal. making 15% nitro w/18% castor. That's not bad but on my fixed income it's too expensive to buy the components in large enough quantities to get the lowest price.

aspeed

I had been buying methanol at the hardware store for $7 a gallon just so it would stay fresh, as I only use about that much in a year. The majority of my flying is done with .049 and .15 size motors. I seldom fly my .91 4 stroke. Now methanol is usually $11 a gallon though. Oil seems to be $8 US a quart, and then there is the nitro which is hard to get here. I still have a galf gallon from 30 years ago to use up. I have been buying from the Toledo show lately, but with our crappy money the $14 US is getting close to $20 a gallon. Maybe I will have to mix my own again. Wow, you have a fixed income, I wish I had one. I am living on love, and that is spread pretty thin.

KaP2011

My Feedback: (17)

LOL, my fixed income is spread pretty thin as well. My wife has instructed me that if I want a new plane or engine I first have to sell one. That's like asking me to sell a finger, a very difficult thing to do. (and fingers just don't seem to fetch as much as they used to)

Charlie P.

Look again. I have two quarter-scale electric powered models: 22.2volt/60Amp motors. And they're babys among some of what the former Giant Scale IMAA pilots are putting together. Castle Creations is selling 12s (44.4v) 120 Amp BECs

I have seen 40% IMAC electric models swinging 32" props. They run 15 kilowatts and are up into the 15s (55.5volt) battery packs. That much power would easily do anything a 1/3 scale WWI model or even 100" WWII warbirds would need.

I prefer gasoline in the larger models, but if another pilot likes electrics that size I'm all for it.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is powered gliders. I really like the freedom a glider using an electric motor w/folding prop allows. You can climb to altitude and then shut down the motor and kick it back on 15 or 20 minutes later if needed. Makes for a much easier after-work flight than lugging out the 'ol high-start and launching a glider manually.

aspeed

Yes, gliders and electric with a folding prop are made in heaven.

john43055

My Feedback: (33)

Hello fellow R/C ers! I have been flying glow/nitro for over 45 years, and LOVE it. I have also just discovered electric. I find it a balance between both. I get out to the club field as often as i can, When I can't I charge up a battery and head to the high school soccor field for a quick flight before lunch or sunset. It's nice to be able to do this, see all the cool electric "epo" planes on the market.... BUT... there aint nothing like nitro!! Happy Flying! John

ochsnm00

It's a double edged sward. It's the ready to fly EP's that get the young pilots, but they never move to nitro.

ochsnm00

It's a supply and demand thing. There is less and less demand so suppliers drop out resulting in less price competition.

ochsnm00

I'm not sure if commercial glow fuel will be around much longer.

chuckk2

I grew up in Illinois, and originally used small glow engines. The major complaints were related to cold weather and hard starting.
This time around, even though I've long since moved to a southern state, I elected to try electric power. As far as I can tell, the current
drawbacka to electric power are shorter flight times due to battery weight/capacity, and charge time.
Our club does buy glow fuel in bulk, but the quantity has decreased as more fliers use gas engines, due to fuel costs.

stegl

A lot of the complaints about short flight times are using due to a few basic reasons. I have found that if a larger motor is used and not over propped there is less current draw as it isn't working that hard so extended flight times

On my Top Flite Cessna 182-60 I run a Scorpion 4025 brushless on 6S 4000mah and an APC 16x8 prop and I use about 1200-1400 mah in 6 minutes of flight time using all digital servos ( 7 ) Now this is scale flying with a few 15 second bursts of full power on go-arounds. I would have no problem getting 12 to 14 minute flight times. anything over that would get boring . It's all in motor, prop and battery size with style of flying thrown in.

With my Sig 39 inch wing Rascal (3s1300) , I can get close to 16-18 minutes. As with any electric combination ; full throttle use, does eat up the battery capacity.

jmiles1941

I fly IMAC and we all use gas from 150cc to 222 cc haven't seen any electrics in IMAC don't think I will !!!!

MTK

I'm sure there are a few who fly large on E-power. Equipment exists, albeit it's heavy compared to gas. Gas is simple particularly for large models that's why IMAC is dominated by petrol power. Large scale Military planes also. Flying a 35% on nitro is not practical unless it's a twin (or more)

Of course most jets use none of the above. There is some edf stuff but I have not seen nor heard of large edf.

kmeyers

I always avoided diesel because of the ether volatility. It does pack a punch though.

LJE4357

My Feedback: (74)

spiceflyer

Im all for gas as well... im just dead set against electric. To me it seems that there just a toy.. A true rc plane to me, is a plane that has a real motor in it and makes real motor noises, and burns fuel... I have this agreement with my buddy.. He flys toys too..

stegl

If you want to ruin you 2 and 4 stroke engines use the drug store variety ....the castor they sell be fine for what ails you but has never been triple degummed and when that gets into your engine... look out. If you can't get proper degummed castor for engine use then stick with synthetic oils for that purpose.

oneblueyedog

When I trailed off the sport in 2000's electric was developing. I tried a few planes, a Zagi, a park flyer called a..... ..... heck I forgot, and a Lipo converted Me 163. The Zagi flew like I'm used to. The others were toy like. The Lipos scared the heck out of me. When info was bad back then, it was suggested that a swelled pack should be immersed in a bucket of water and pierced with an icepick. I did that and walked away.

I'm flying glow 4 strokes at the moment. If you can learn to change bearings in the 2 and 4 stroke motors you see for sale used, you can get them for the price or less than a lipo pack and have a lot of fun. So many of the engines for sale are not even broken in.

I'm also a builder, but using modern tech materials in place of the old ways. Some of the old ways are coming back, if you can find silkspan. If you build, you have to get clever.

I admire today's foam planes. They're technologically advanced. And when I saw an electric F3A plane, I realized that you can build big, light and strong. That will probably be where I go next.

I'd like to see battery technology take a leap forward from where it is now. It's weight, cost and longevity have improved but I think it is still high compared to glow, along with the maintenance of them. I'm a tightwad.

Glow and gas are still popular here in the Houston area, but electric has had the greatest effect on growing the sport to where it is today. It let the non-builder fulfill the dream, when manufacturers provided planes that flew great right out of the box with little assembly required and BNF. I wish I had had that back in 1980. You built, crashed and repaired back then.

I hope people start to build and try glow. It's a sustainable option IMO. For Nitromethane, sometime I'll go straight alcohol and see how much of a hassle it is.

If you want to be really rare, go diesel. I actually mixed my own fuel from stuff I got at Walmart and the John Deer store. Fired my ST .61 diesel right up. WARNING:They stink!

jester_s1

Absolutely glow is on the way out, at least out from being the mainstream power system of the hobby. Back before brushless motors and lipos, electric couldn't give you the same power to weight ratio as glow could, but now it can. And before practical CDI ignitions, gassers were too heavy for anything other than huge airplanes and even then were cantankerous to use. But now the best electric systems can actually offer a better power to weight ratio if you don't need more than 10 minutes of flight time, and gassers are lighter, more user friendly, and more powerful than they were. So glow's dominance of the middle size models is definitely going away. The .40-.60 size engines will hang around indefinitely because they can turn more RPM and are cheaper to buy than anything else, but I predict in 10 years glow will be a niche item. I personally think gas will take over as the standard power system for anything .40 and bigger, while electric will dominate everything smaller. And I think that'll be a good thing. I'd love to use $2 a gallon fuel that I can buy anywhere in my model planes!