I have 400 airplanes that fly in 20 MPH wind, that are actually power by 400 brushed motors at 100W input. you build or bring airplanes to suit your flying conditions. There are also the slopers that wait until the wind gets to 60-70 MPH to bring out the dynamic soarers to push 400MPH.

Electric is here to stay. Face it. The world is cordless electric everything. An electric airplane can be easily related to to somebody under 20 years of age than an IC powered aircraft. When I worked in the RC industry I thought big electric (>1000W) would never take off. But 5-6 years ago all of a sudden it became acceptable to spend 2-3 times what a glow setup would cost to have an electric 60 size or larger airplane. Only a couple years later the Chinese figured out there is a huge market and the cost is actually less than buying a new OS or Saito four stroke. If the price of electric motors, ESC, and batteries didn't drop, there was a chance for it to be a fad, but it's here to stay now.

I have an Ultra Stick Lite that first flew with a brushed cobalt motor and 40 NiCd cells in 2003, just something I wanted to use, I had brushless motors that would work. It wasn't crazy power, but did what I wanted it to. A 12S6000 LiPo pack on the same motor flew it for two 12-15 minute flights without charging in 2004-2005 and would pull the airplane to 4000ft in under 6 minutes. I still have the airplane, the LiPo pack is dead, but it will probably end up with a spark ignition FS-200 on the nose. It's really just a matter of tight cash flow and what I have available. Today, a new 10S5000 pack costs only 100USD compared to the 500USD the first one would have cost. I'd love to get another Ultra Stick Lite airframe so I could have an electric and IC, but they are impossible to find. I'll probably have to build one.

Our clubs here also have a greater number of glow airplanes. But there is one hobby shop near Chicago that does the majority of their business in electric. There is also a HUGE number of electric flyers that don't fly at normal clubs, simply because they don't have to.