Originally posted by JT-Indiana
I was in the same boat as you.........Got a SE and need a engine. From what alot of guys say, the SE likes a 2 stroke.......As in a Irvine 53..Which I think you will find that that is the most popular....I bought a used NIB Irvine 46 on here, so I went with that. If time permits me to finish it up, I hope to give a report on it.
My SE was a gift from one of my flying mates. He built it and flew it for a while with an Irvine .46. He also had the stock landing gear on it, and was limited to 11" props maximum. It wasn't all that great. It took a while to ROG, and once airborne flew fast, straight lines (not a whole lot of low-end thrust with the smaller props)
Once it was in *my* hands the 2C went away, as did the stock gear. In their place went a spare YS .53, an old 13x5 SuperM wood prop and a set of taller landing gear from TNT.
Now its airborne in 10 feet at WOT... 20 at half throttle. Thanks to the Big Prop its quite the low-speed aerobat... got plenty thrust when I need it and plenty drag when I don't.
The key here is the Big Prop. For high-alpha flying the plane really shines when you've got a big 'ol fan up front pushing air over that thick wing... small props just don't cut it. If you use taller aftermarket landing gear you can achieve a similar affect with a .46 by using an APC fun-fly prop (12.25x3.75), just try not to break too many @ $7 bucks a pop
As for me - I'll keep on using big, cheap props (APC 12x6 right now-I've run out of the 13x5 Super Ms, and the Zinger replacements suck). I'm also keeping an eye on the Swapshop for another .63
