[QUOTE=James English;11700906]Lots of good ideas. this weekend see if my new electronics will actuate the servos if I can find a battery for it
QUOTE]


OK Here are some thoughts to ponder. First and foremost this route will Not be the minimal expense entry into the hobby you think and I believe all in this forum who have been 'been around the horn' will agree. This route will without a doubt cost you considerably more by the time you reach a given level of modelinig/flying skills. That's a fact.
Now to your question gas or glow? Well without starting the power system wars I will only say one should start flying on the type of power system they intend to stay with and switching back and forth when you are new and training is not only a bad idea but shockingly expensive.

Last but not least and the reason I quoted you above is the fact you are using old and unknown servos on an old airplane. Well unless your mentor knows exactly what he is doing then cheaping out on servos may well let the smoke out of your new Rx. First understand that just because someone built that airplane twenty years ago does not mean that the servos are the same age. Fact is its common for folks to use old servos in new airplanes and its very likely that those servos could easily be double the age of the airplane.

There are back to a point where servos used four conductor leads, These simply will not only not plug in to a new receiver but they will not work. Then there is the plug compatibility with later servos which used the very, very popular G plug which is simply not compatible with anything today and these are everywhere. These servos can work but require an major change or expensive adapters that are hard to find anymore. Now the best for the last are the popular old Airtronics servos which used a plug with a major polarity change from all the others and if you plug these to a modern receiver it will let the smoke out of your pretty new Rx.

Don,t get me wrong I love anything from a light refurbishment to a major one and even what is called kit bashing and that is making something entirely different out of what you started with.

But they are never ever cheap and sould only be done simply because you love it.

John