Hi All, thought I would jump in here after reading most of this thread. Electrics are what got me back into model airplanes around April of this year. I saw "how cheap" there were and started at the lowest end with something I could take to a local park to fly - a foamie. It attracted so much positive attention there I am sure there were some that actually did look up the brief info I gave them , on the internet when they got home later. Quiet, clean and quick to setup/store. That led to full on binging in the RC world for me - all this in the last 3 months. I started seeing all the great buys on glow engines, planes and total setups and got caught up with buying a few on rcgroups, ebay and craigslist items. It is a good time for a guy like me - the converts to electric are bailing out of their glow inventory. Check out flitetest.com if you aren't aware of what is causing a major surge in electrics. These guys have really packaged up the sport well with well-produced videos, around 425 at last count. You can build a high-performance electric out of a couple sheets Dollar Tree Foamboard - $DT - and reuse all the electrics after smashed the plane enough that you can't repair. And packing tape is your major method of repair.
However! Over a brief amount of time I have seen two major constraints of electric - 1) the cost of performance batteries, esc's and motors is - let's say for argument - at par with the cost of glow, and 2) the safety factor of Lipo's. I have become really concerned about Lipos just going off - catching on fire - with little provocation. When one of the most popular videos on Youtube is "how to build your Lipo bunker" you have to stop and ask yourself, "Are little electric airplanes worth risk of burning my house down?" I keep my Lipos in a steel box in my garage, now. I don't bring them into the house, although I do charge in my basement under total supervision. You can't trust those little suckers.
A major MAJOR positive of electrics is that I don't think you have to belong to a club if that is all you want to fly. You can go to your local soccer complex and fly a 60-equivalent electric powered plain and I think people will be generally attracted. You can't do that with glow. The noise of the glow engines relegates them to model club fields.
I like the "energy" around the electric powered RC world. I guess you'd call that "buzz." HobbyKing and a few others are offering cheap cheap cheap prices in the smaller sized electrics - but I still am paying $22 for the largest motor before you get into the glow-equivalents like Turnigy 10's through 120's. Lipos don't last forever and the tech keeps advancing so you have to rebuy to keep up - probably, just as expensive if not more than nitro. And I love the smell of castor oil.
So, to a guy like me, both is good. Someone entering the hobby through electrics needs to have a good nitro friend to show them how to get into it - glow is neither as difficult or mysterious as I think pure electric guys believe.
I have to follow up with you'all on how to keep the cost of nitro down and picking it up at next winter's RC expos is one way, and brewing my own sounds like another.
Cheers & CAVU