<div>General Question:</div><div></div><div>With the increased production of electric ARF kits on the market place and their quality ever-increasing, does anyone see an increased trend in smaller scale electric ARF being converted to glow/fuel power? Reason I ask is that one of the benefits I'm finding to the electric aircraft ARF 'boom' is that the kits are super easy to convert to glow (.25 - .35 sized engines), nicely detailed, and conveniently small for transportation purposes. I've converted an E-flite Piper Pawnee to glow and am in the works to do the same to the E-flite T-6 Texan and love the idea of being able to take both to the field and not have a huge haul to undertake.</div><div></div><div>Just curious to see what others are doing/seeing in our hobby now days. Thanks everyone.
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Interesting observation Andrew.

Time was, 40-size planes dominated the glow market, but now that 25-size electrics have become so popular it will be interesting to see if more people will follow the trend you're setting.

No doubt this will be true.  I have seen a couple electric ARFs that looked like good glow cantidates - the ICON A-5 flying boat for example.

One issue is that the firewall is too far forward with electric models.  Easy to add the spacers or add a plywood box to convert a real model to electric, but more difficult to rear-set a glow engine and muffler if the design has the forward firewall.

Check it out!

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/forumid_510/tt.htm

I converted an electric to glow, the biggest challenge was making the engine mount strong enough to take on an electric starter. Once the engine was running the load was minor compared to the starting forces applied to the mount. If there was a way around the starting problem that would be a big hurdle resolved.

I converted an Extreme Flight 47" Yak to glow. Put a ST .51 on it that I had laying around. Vertical was insane. Wing loading was suprising pretty good. Would have been better with a lighter .32 to .35 engine, but I used what I had.

@Kmot -
Thanks for the link and heads up on others doing the same. There are so many things going on on rcu that one tends to overlook certain threads from time to time.

@ Andy R -
I thought that was going to be an issue with the E-flite Piper Pawnee that I did a few years ago (here's my write up) but simply building up the mount with a bit of epoxy and basewood did the trick. The strangest part about E-flite electric motor mount threads (the pre-drilled locations)is that they match up perfectly to a .20-.45 sized Great Planes adjustable motor mount. Which is perfect for a .20-.25 engine.

@Mike -
How goes it!? Long time no chat / see.Yeah, after a few years of battle oversized hauls to the field, I decided to go down the road of smaller ARFs and I have to say that I'm impressed wtih E-flite thus far. Only problem is that they can get a bit spendy from time to time. For example, the latest Cub (here) is a bit expensive. Nice kit, but not for that price (unless I start making more $$).


I've gone from glow-2-electric-2-glow-2-electric-2... you get the idea; and found I really do love glow. I enjoy the mechanical aspect of the engine and the tuning, tweaking, adjusting, etc. Plus, it's the sound of the engine in the sky. Enjoyable for me If anyone is interested I'll be sure to post the work on the T-6 Texan as I begin work on it. It won't start until December, as it's my winter project, but I'm planning on a full paint scheme and conversion w/the new E-flite electric retracts.

_andrew



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I think Geoff is reviewing that Cub right now.