RE: I am thinking of crossing over to the dark side
I know that I am hearing stories all across the nation of clubs losing fields due to noise. One here in Vegas is currently in jeopardy of losing thier field as building has encroached on their field. Same old story - idiot buys a home that is close to a field that has been there for years and years then complains about the noise. We had a pig farm that was the same way. Guy had raised pigs out in the middle of nowhere for years and all the sudden his neighbors who knew they were buying near a pig farm got him evicted.
In general electric may be the better choice but as mentioned there are tradeoffs, mostly in flight time.
As for conversions - I know a lot of you have done them but a glow plane is set up to run with a heavier motor and fuel tank which changes (in many cases) the CG of the plane. When you put in a light motor and battery, you may need to add a LOT of weight to balance the plane so when you buy the motor and battery take that weight into consideration when scoping out the proper sizes. Maybe this has just been my experience but you know what they say - a nose heavy plane flies badly... a tail heavy plane flies once. I had to add almost two pounds of lead to the front of my plane to balance it after the conversion and then it was underpowered. This was a 64" high wing Traveler 60.
Just for comparison I also drive R/C trucks. I have a T-Maxx 2.5 Nitro and a Stampede VXL electric. I almost never run my T-Maxx because it takes me 30 minutes to clean it after running it. I can use the same LiPo batteries from my planes in my Stampede so it is a win/win.
Have fun.
dave