As usual, I'm out of step with the herd.


I flew petrol for many years ... when Zenoah was king ... but have since disposed of all my petrol engines in favour of four-stroke glow. The weight and bulk of the petrol engines compelled me to build either large airframes or else highly-loaded airframes; and I just got tired of it.

I understand that the newer petrol engines are more refined than those industrial conversions, so these factors may no longer apply.



You will find that the black, oily residue from the exhaust of a petrol engine will permanently discolour any woven covering that has not been thoroughly sealed.

It's true that the cost of petrol is lower than the cost of methanol, but I suspect that the annual savings are really quite modest ... for the average modeller. As a "sport flier", I reckon to burn about 6 gallons of glow fuel per annum. This costs me about £50 'cos I mix my own. So, even if petrol were FREE, the most I could save would be £50 per annum. Sure, that's worth having, but it's not a major factor in my modelling budget. It won't do much to offset the loss of selling my good glow engines and buying new petrol engines.









Anyway, like most of the thread on RCU, this one is no more than an expression of personal preferences. There is no objective standard by which to measure the desirability of glow over petrol over electric.