Originally Posted by
HoundDog
Wrong again INIT Glow is alive and well. Granted Lipos
have made a difference as have ARF's and Foam
airplanes.
Lipos still don't have the power to weight ratio (ie flight time) of either Glow fuel or Gas or even Jet A or Kero that Turbines have. Likewise a 3 to 4 minute flight in an Electric ducted fan and an 30 to 45 minute charge are barley tolerable. A glow engine doesn't HAVE to be back on the ground in 6 minutes or ruin the expensive batteries... Also Motors and speed controls & Lipos are still expensive and sensitive. Then the support equipment is expensive. Chargers, Power supplies and Power source ie a Large expensive Deep Cycle Battery or a thousand dollar generators. Lipos are very sensitive and dangerous when mishandled.
The Next generation of Battery Technology will make Electric more viable and eventually less expensive. It will not Religate GLOW to the museum.
It appears the Doggie doesn't get out of the coop much. IMHO Nitro is dying a slow death. Sure you may be in denial, but check with the LHS or the manufactures and see how much nitro they're selling these days. I got rid of my last 5 cases of nitro two years ago and never looked back. At $30+/gallon for 30% that ~$1k generator gets cheap fast. Take a look around and notice how some once popular glow engines are slowly starting to disappear as well.
No doubt it depends on the specific application to determine the best fuel source wither it be gas, glow, or electric, but in the mainstream mid-sized stuff electric has taken over.
I don't miss the slime or the noise one bit, good riddance. I still have two glow engines in my hangar, but that's only because I'm too lazy to sell them.