This is my first post on a forum and i want to say hi to everyone. I think this might be the place to be to get some answers! ive been into rc for 25 years but only around 6 years ago i got into aircraft. I presently own a gws slowstick, blade mcx2, blade 120, and just got the blade 300x. having alot of fun learning how to fly but im ready to settle in and start a build. Im going to be building the top-flite cesna 182. It will be glassed and im going to covert it into a tail dragger and ill be running tundra tires. I plan on powering w the zenoah 20cc gas engine w electronic ignition. Im wondering what would be the best reciever/battery configuration. i plan on 7 servos anda full light kit. Some pointers w the electronics would be appreciated. thanks

81 1/2" wingspan<br type="_moz" />

The first thing I'd look at is the input voltage range of the electronic ignition.
Having said that, seven digital servos and lighting is a fair load.
My preference would be to use something like a two to four cell LiPo,
and, if needed, a 10A voltage regulator (BEC) Castle and others make such critters.
There are servos available, as well as receivers that can operate at voltages higher than the traditional 4.8 vdc.
Others prefer to use LIFE. Depending on the current drawn by the lighting, a 3,300mah LiPo may be OK as a minimum.
A real problem with NiCad and NMIH batteries has to do with voltage drop under short term high current loading, and the difficulty some have in determining the charge state of the batteries. The older analog 72 mhz RX's and analog servos are/were not as sensitive to voltage drop outs as the digital 2.4ghz RX's with digital servos.

The ignition voltage needs to be looked at....all of mine are regulated to 5v through a regulator. I use LiIon batts at 2600 mAh rating. For the system I'd use 2 batts of the same rating although you can get by using just 1 batt

If you go into the gas engine forum, a sub forum in Giant Scale you will find pages of people using the same engine. There you will see what ignition packs most people are using. I do use Lipo packs in my electric powered planes but as yet I am still using nim for my other aircraft as flight packs. Because of that I would use two 6 volt nimh packs with two switches. My last giant scale gasser I used three packs and three switches and all batteries were the same. I also used the packs as weight to achieve the CG. All three had to be placed forward. There are a lot of choices of battery type these days and each has it's good and bad points. Just a choice thing these days and your instructions with the engine will tell you what they recommend.

The engine calls out for a 4.8v 2400mah for the ignition. so three batt seems to be the answer.  one for ignition, one for lighting and one for the servos. seems like alot but i dont want my lighting to Drain my servo battery.  So i would need 3 switches. If i decided to use one battery for the lighting and servos how big of battery? Is lipo the best solution?  How would all of these batteries hook up? Am i going to need a 9 channel rx?

Are digital servos a must or is there a good alternative? i was thinking of running futaba s3152.

the directions should tell you the recommended torque of the servos....plan from there

ok thanks

You just use one battery and switch for the ignition then two switches and batteries that will go into any open ports in the RX. Size of RX depends on how many channels you need. I use no Y-harnesses so I tend to need a bigger RX. You shouldn't need digital for a Cessna, just good analogs should be OK. Battery type?? I only have one charger for the newer types and several chargers for the older nimh and nicad so I only use the newer types in my electric planes. If I needed new chargers then I would go with the life and lipo packs.

Gray is correct except I use a batt share instead of 2 open ports in my receivers. A batt share will keep the draw on the batteries equal and shut off a battery in case draw on one gets to be to much..As in a short in the battery

ok i will look into that. much thanks