Originally Posted by
CDucote
Hello everyone. Im returning to RC airplanes after about a 20 year break. I am Re-Building an old duraplane trainer 40 that I had. after looking at the cost of glow fuel I decided to convert to Electric. Also changing to a 2.4 ghz radio.
Looks like the hobby has changed quite a bit. The duraplane is just about ready to Fly, Just waiting for good weather.
Besides choices that the Joneses smile at, consider things a lot of people forget or were never taught in the first place.
Lighter, smaller engines are one of the most dramatic change you can make to a model, besides correcting bad CG.
A lot of people rely on trim settings on the radio to compensate for a poorly set up model because they have no one teaching them how to do it.
It's funny how decades changes people's thinking about what is properly powered, over powered, or under powered, and "expo" and "dual rates" were nothing but science fiction back in the day. Servo reversing was the talk of the clubs when that feature came out. Knowledge that people had in the 60's through the 90's seems to be forgotten with first the ARF, now the foam stuff you pull out of a box, bind and fly. In the 1960's you didn't have much choice to over power anything really. It's really sad to know people weened on foam and battery powered toys shaped to look like model airplanes, check only the condition of their battery and not much else, they take it for granted the plane is set up precisely from the Chinese factory. You rarely hear about people readjusting thrust angle, moving CG further back, checking lateral balance, checking wing incidence....they take it all for granted that's it's good. Even with an "old" ARF, you cannot shave off unnecessary weight, and never experience a much better flying model than foam, or garbage plywood, down spouts, or coroplast for that matter. I only find foam useful when a transmitter is secured in a box. You will never see a foam airplane shape fly on a windy day. Frequently I'm the only guy at the field on windy days. Balsa and glow power has its advantages.
Keep in mind, new radios are harder to program and receivers aren't cheap, nothing new comes with servos. All the cost of gear, RTF electrics, cost of lipo's - chargers, are you really saving money to avoid glow fuel?
If you decide on lipo powered motors, that's fine, but make some calls. Lipo fires may not be covered on your homeowners policy. Allstate limits me to 5, as "personal use." Batteries tend to die faster than advertised too. In any case, it's a big learning curve to abandon what you know. 2.4 Ghz receivers tend to brown out with a voltage drop. Maybe that's fixed?
I just spent $60 shipped for a
new radio, receiver, 4 servos, and switch the other day. Can't wait to try it out.
Same site offers huge savings on local pick up ready to fly balsa wood - glow powered models. It offsets my cost of fuel.
Digital servos take higher voltage, at what price tag? The market will simply require you to do all these new tech things to fly anything, even some 2 - 3 lb. foam shaped airplane,
when for decades 42 oz/in standard servos have worked for me through .60 size 7 - 8 lb airplanes including pylon racers, and pattern planes.