AAM
Just want to pick out some of your post and relate my experience, I have around 350 flights on e-power this year, have not flown glow all season. Just back from the WC in France, 17th in prelims, 20th after the semi's :-)
The top FAI pilots are using it but they have huge support from companies. They could be flying brand new batts and motors every single day and we won't know it.
I cant tell you up front that I paid 50% of the cost of my batteries, I dont run new ones every flight
VERY FEW guys are getting them for free. I think you will find that most are forking out some amount of money for their stuff. Keep in mind that I was 100% sponsored for fuel so it is a huge increase in cost for me to fly electric.....
Although not specifically saying it do the math on how many battery packs it takes to get 700 flights when you are only getting 60 flights on a set of packs
60 flights a pack is last years news, the new Prolites we are using have only shown a rough 1.5-3% loss in capacity for 60 cycles (which is where I am at now)....I know from speaking to guys at the Worlds that a few are over 100 cycles and were using them in that competition so they must still be putting out the power. How long will they go? I dont know but I am expecting to see 150 cycles out of these packs at least. Obviously if you abuse them they are going to fry on you, so its still the end user who dictates how well the gear will last.
Oh guess what when you crash one of these models they can and do start the fire too!
Yes, but I have witnessed 3 pattern models with lipos crash, none started fire. Two of them the batteries were not even harmed, the third the packs looked scary but no fire.
The word is having the gearboxes worked on every 50 flights
Why do people think Hacker is the only choice? Plettenberg outrunners do the job, with no gearbox, less noise, and no hassles. I have not touched a motor this season
I wont touch a motor with a gearbox with a 10 foot pole
$8,000 to $10,000 worth of battery packs so I could get 700 flights
Its realistic to get 100 flights on the TP 5300 packs, so thats 7, 10s packs @ $640 each or only $4480
Ya thats a lot but I dont know of many guys putting 700 flights on their planes in a short period of time.
I did the numbers back in the spring on this, break even point is roughly 200-220 cycles when compared to running a 140/160DZ on 30% nitro. We are halfway or better there already.
I have not fried a motor, or an ESC (Schulze) in over 300 flights :-) I wont be going back to glow ever regardless of the cost of electric
There is also the intangible benefits of your airframe and radio gear virtually never wearing out...no reason you could not get 5000 flights on an airframe
Is it simple, no....it requires diligence and a level of care that you dont have with glow. You need some good voltmeters, chargers etc to make sure things are on the level all the time as one mistake is all it takes.....but its not as negative as you seem to believe it is. With a cautious approach and common sense anyone should be able to make this work without burning down their house or destroying many dollars worth of equipment.