John, noise is another big factor in choosing electric. The one swoose I'm building for my friend is going E-power for a few other reasons. Clean up is just one of them. The fellow I'm giving it to is older and doesn't want to be bringing his fuel and start up equipment with him just to fire up a glow engine. He is at a point in his life when easy is important and E-power is very easy, we both just learned that with our AeroWorks Extras, just pop in a pack and go. Some small ponds and lakes do not allow gas or glow, electric only, private ponds and lakes are often electric only.
In my case I will stick with glow in my Swoose. I have the engine on hand and will only be flying at his private lake once in a while, the rest of the time I figure Mead or Havasu at the fly in? If I get it all figured out that is.
Small E-power I can afford but the Swoose will require a lot of watts and Watts=money so I gave it a pass. Having several packs on hand is a must as you mentioned but with the small .25 or .35 electric the cost isn't any more then the good glow power. I think I paid under 10 bucks per pack and only a few bucks for the motor and ESC for my little plane. For about 100 beans the OP will be good to go if he gets everything from Hobby King, so far I have gotten everything I ordered from them and it has all worked!