What are the advantages to having a gas/electric powered plane? What are the disadvantages?

Popcorn time.

Gas - known and easy technology.
Electric - Clean,usually quiet and reliable.

Now for the details from others.

What do you mean by popcorn time? Should I just use google?

When you say GAS do you mean gasoline? or glow fuel? or both?

No - I was referring to sititng back with the beer and popcorn to watch the show.
It is a joke.

the question invites people personal opinions - be they based on fact, religion, color or creed or anything else.

Just to set the record - I fly both. In my opinion, the advantages and disadvantages are about the same - it is just what is most important to the individual that makes the difference. I am not so familiar with the latest high powered electric technology available so it would be good to get buy in form others who are experienced.

Lets seperate it into three different catagories:

>Gasoline

>Glow fuel

>Electricity


BTW, by glow fuel, do you mean nitro? I have always known nitro fuel as nitro.

yes correct or not...... I guess I call it glow fuel, as there are many different mix's of nitro, castrol,synthetic ,and I am sure we don't even want to start including home brew, and ethanol, and glow motors running gasoline and gasoline motors running glow !! ha ha


Ok I will give you MY personal preferences...

Glow, messy,expensive, and I can't tune an engine to save my life ! I realize that s blasphemy

Gasoline, once set they run pretty reliable, conversions are interesting, they power the size of planes I prefer lately.

Electric, love them..but I only fly small electrics with interchangeable batteries mainly , They are clean, quiet, small, good run times. Electrics can do anything the others can nowadays, if you setup right. I prefer them for small trunk sized planes.

So from a scale of 1 to 10, ten being the highest, how would you rate this A10?

[8D]Gas- fuel relatively cheap, easy to tune, relatively reliable idle, but generally are for planes in 10 pound and up 6 foot wingspan and up range. Initial cost relatively high due to large size.

Glow (Nitro) - Initial cost relatively low, fuel cost high, available for all sizes but the very small "parkflyers", messy due to oil content of fuel, noisy, relatively hard to tune especially for idle.

Electric- reliable operation, low noise level, low cost of energy per flight, but very expensive in up-front cost for motor, batteries, and charging equipment.

Since I like smaller sized planes 3 to 6 foot wingspan I would use electric for small planes and glow for medium sized planes if I were starting out now. I might consider electric for medium sized planes. Gas is only way to go for the big birds, but they are out of my league both in cost and skill level required.

Ok - Here's my full opinion.
It is based on the popular brands - I am sure there are alternatives to each opinion.

Glow
Good for planes up to "1.20" size.
Messy due to high oil contents.
Can be unreliable if not tuned or installed properly. (due to reliance on exhaust pressure to feed the fuel)
Larger ones use a higher quantity of more expensive per gallon fuel than the Gas equivalent.
Generally lighter than a Gas equivalent but when the extra fuel qty is considered, weights get a lot closer.

Gasoline
Good for planes larger than 1.20 size (Yes - I know there are small gassers but they are not as common)
Reliable even if not perfectly tuned or installed (Due to pump style carbs and positive ignition sequencing).
Less messy due to lower oil content.
Cheap to operate once installed and running
Requires additional power source for ignition
Greater risk of radio interference

Electric
Good for planes from 0 - "1.80" size
Depending on batteries used - can be heavy for same flight times
Depending on Battery technology used - can be a risk for charging.
Requires a good degree of technical knowledge to match everything to get the proper performance from the motor -(ESC, Battery selection etc)
Can be expensive to purchase (Mostly the larger sizes due to battery costs)
Running costs are low EXCEPT when battery replacements are considered (Especially if using LiXx technology)
Clean and quiet.


Now there are bigger electrics (like the 200 plus inch Lancaster in the UK), smaller gassers and bigger glows - these fall into the "Overlap" territory. I know guys that insist on using large (2.00 and larger glow) where a gasser would usually be used these days, I know guys that use small gassers (BME 90 is a great example) and love them. F3A is dominated by Electric and Glow but there are some gassers used quite succesfully.

Generally, I would only consider an electric park flyer, would generally consider Gas in any plane of above 8 or 9 lbs and would definitely consider glow in all the in between sizes. (And for F3A I break both rules - I have both Glow and Electric in planes around 10 - 11 lbs)

It really does depend on what your preferences are.

Do you understand any of that? If so please explain it to me, I've got myself confused now

Is this going to be your first model airplane flying experience, Austin?

The A-10 in the video is very attractive and it appears to fly very well, but it also appears to be a model that would be extremely difficult with which to learn how to fly. Other folks, with experience, make model flying look easy. It isn't.

If this is going to be your first model, I would pick something easier to learn how to fly. What is the point in spending that much money for it to only last a few seconds undamaged?

There are plenty of RTF electric powered models out there that would be more suited as a first model. Simulator flying, while useful, seldom prepares a new pilot for flying in the real world.

Good luck.


Ed Cregger

I fly electric and glow.
My electric is my after work flyer. Just grab the batteries, the plane and the transmitter and off I go. At the field it’s more or les just plug and play until I’m out of charged batteries.
Nitro is a bit more time consuming. At the field you fuel up, tune the engine and then its fly, fuel up, fly, fuel up, fly…… all day long. Then you need to do some cleaning before you pack up and leave.
If I only have an hour or so, I like to spend the short amount of time flying and not setting up and cleaning. If I have a couple of hour’s time to go to the field I don’t mind taking all the equipment there and spending time cleaning.
I’m happy to have both! And maybe I’ll buy myself a nice gaser and plane to go with it for Christmas.

Advantages and benefits of gas/glow (fuel powered) are sound and clean up and the challenge of keeping them running. Just like "real" airplanes. The disadvantage of electric is failure to meet the minimum noise requirements.

Isn't it disappointing that for electric to equal the same thrill factor as glow, it also makes about as much noise?

I do agree that the electric models have distinct advantages as mentioned in a previous post. They are great for grabbing a few flights before dusk with no clean up and no need to carry along a huge support field box from the car to the pits. Now, if the price of large LiPos would come down...


Ed Cregger

I just read through all the posts including your question about the A10.

Notice the thread has drifted in focus. This is typical.

If your original question is still of interest to you, I'm going to suggest you look in the 'Beginner' forum. At the top of the forum you will find several very helpful threads, they are kept there by the forum keepers.

If your question has drifted to evaluation of that A10.... I still want to point you to the Beginner forum 'Sticky' threads at the top. There is a ton of advice there. Good advice.

Best wishes,
Dave Olson

Well, for a model. I have been flying a Wattage Tigershark for about four years now. It has stopped working, so I decided to get a better, faster replacement. Also, have you ever heard of the computer game called "Battlefield 1942"? Well there is a mod for it that makes the planes and everything else up to date. I have always flown the A10 Thunderbolt. I know, I know: flying one on a computer is different than flying one in real life...but I also have a Sabre helicopter. I am not very new to RC...done it my whole life.

Then I was worried for nothing. Just didn't want you to be disappointed, that's all.

I'm an A-10 freak myself. Were I young again and able to qualify for flight training in the USAF, the A-10 would be my bird of choice. Come back and let us know how you made out with it.


Ed Cregger

Okay...sounds good. And is this A10 the upgraded model of this A10?