Electric is getting more reliable, cost effective and affordable all the time. 5S packs for Pattern planes have gone from $400-500 a piece to about $200 a piece in the last year alone. Packs have gone from yielding 50 flights (maybe) to reliably providing 150 flights if you buy from the right people (ie Falcon, Thinderpower). Also, Fromeco (www.Fromeco.org) has raised the bar for Litium Ion performance by providing flight packs (7.4V) at roughly haf the cost of Duralite and the other competitors and the packs have real punch. With a good Triton Charger you can have a relatively safe, reliable lithium Ion system to replace your NiCads that will provide WAY more flights per charge, excellent performance under a load and good battery life.

The downside of electric powered flight is still the cost of the packs (even though prices are falling fast). plus, to ensure battery life you need good chargers, balancers and you really need to do your homework on how to handle the batteries to optimize lifesapn. With a 10-13 pound plane you could easily spend $2000 on chargers, balancers, voltage/amp testers and batteries. If you want to stay up with the technology, you are going to have to spend some money.

As far as safety, yes Lithium is volatile.. BUT, there are exponentially more people using Lithium batteries now than there were 1 year ago, and with the chargers that are on the market today they have become very safe and reliable to use. Stay tuned, it wont be long before out Lithium packs will start coming in a container like a Duracell battery. That will make them a lot safer and will really open up the market and drop the prices down.

As far as performance.... Its a wash. If you are willing to spend the money on quality equipment you can get performance equal to or even better than liquid fuel with electric power.