Would like to introduce my father-in-law to electric flight. I have found a few sites that would allow me to download some free plans. What I don't know is the most economical setup avaliable. He doesn't fly 3D so I was hoping somebody can point me in the right direction. Specifically, I need to find a cheap motor/gearbox setup. I would be looking at the 3dbatix site for plane downloads using blue fanfold.
Thanks guys.

Crash:

I'm not up on sizing motor/batteries, generally rely on the airplane manufacturer for sizing through actual testing rather than estimating needs by watts etc. What I have learned the hard way is that you are much better off starting with a brushless motor of adequate size and leaving the additional complexity of gearing out of the equalsion. You can still go with other than lipo batteries, A-123, or Nimh. Would suggest you find a reasonable cost sorce like "United Hobbies" and look into their inexpensive better stuff. My flying buddy is always showing up with something from them, motors, controllers, batteries that work quite well, at the price, would expect junk, but they are good. The 3D forum should be a good read as to what they find that works well. ENJOY

Ditto the United Hobbies/Hobby City suggestion. You can't beat the prices. For 3D you want to get a 2:1 thrust to weight ratio. So if the plane is going to weigh 16oz including motor, battery, etc, then you want about 32oz of thrust. Naturally if you don't need crazy 3D power, any motor esc combination that'll give you a 1:1 or better thrust to weight ratio should work fine, but for me, I can never have enough power.....

The 3dbatix planes are nice. I built one of their biplanes and I was happy with the plane. I think that their Extra has been very popular.

www.RCGroups.com has a ton of free plans in their scratch built section. I've downloaded, built, and flown quite a few of them from their site.

I like to select my power systems depending on what type of flying I like.

For 3D, I use at least 150 watts per pound. For aerobatic flight, I'll use 100 watts per pound. For scale flight, and for planes with particularly big wings (like a GWS Slow Stick), I'll use 50 watts per pound.

Generally, for a trainer, I recommend at least 100 watts of power, so that you can have enough power to get out of trouble.

Thanks guys.

Check out this website-[link=http://www.lightflightrc.com/]LightflightRC[/link]

Im also fairly new to electronics, and this was the website some friends of mine pointed me towards for cheap but still good gear. Depending on the size you can get a brushless outrunner and an ESC for less than $30.00.

Justin