Pattern is expensive, but I would not agree that an electric set up is always the most expensive. I would put up a new set up for electric, including motor, esc, batteries, and support gear against a new YS set up with support gear and fuel for the year... and mine would be likely be cheaper. You'd be surprised.

But I'm not using Hacker, or some of the bigger names... but my performance is sometimes better, and I can document it.

I still love the sound and smell of a big YS on a pipe, and I don't think they will disappear from pattern completely, nor should they. If you have having good luck with your glow set up, and most of all enjoy it, why change? No reason to. At the end of the day it's still the pilot, look at who won the worlds for example. You could put a glow set up in the hands of any of the top 8 at the NATS who were flying electric, and let the guys who flew glow fly electric instead, and the results would not likely change at all.

Given all that why did I switch? Reliability. I know how my set up is going to perform no matter where the contest is, nor how hot or cold it is. I never have to dink with a needle to get it keep from dying in the middle of a sequence at a contest (when it never did that before). The planes will last forever, no vibration, the servos hardly ever wear out.

Before you say batteries don't last... I have two sets of batteries that I used from June of last year until now with over 250 cycles on them combined. No problems...

Anyway, that's just my viewpoint. I just cringe when somebody says that electrics are too expensive. They aren't. My set up can't beat an OS over the course of a year, but I'll bet I can beat or at least come close to a YS.

FWIW

Tom Messer