Hi all,

First off, i've been haunting this site religiously ever since I discovered it a few weeks ago, it's such a joy to find a place with both experienced and new pilots exchanging valuable information.

I have decided to get back into this hobby after almost 20 yrs of absence and have already ordered my first trainer.

Since i'm getting married next year, and expect my disposable income to dwindle (drastically) as "the day" approaches and certainly for many years after I feel that its now or never to do this.

Since I expect the misses to balk at some of the costs involved in this hobby I am planning to purchase things with longevity and reusability in mind.

I plan on getting a 7 or 8 channel computerized radio instead of a 3 or 4 channel one, looking to the future and more functions.

I will be ordering a trainer kit in a few days, I used to enjoy building my own planes and am looking forward to constructing this over the winter months.

I also plan on using the same engine and electronics on my 2nd model, and possibly the third.

The question I have is should I start off with gas as opposed to glow to reduce the monthly costs, I live just a few minutes away from a field and honestly see myself out there several days a week for many hours at a time.

If I go with a gas engine fuel costs will certainly be substantially cheaper.

Am I missing something ??, such as maintanance costs and parts ??

Is this a realistic approach to the hobby or should I just go with a glow engine and pay the $12-15 dollars a gallon ?

Also, are there any .60 or so size gas engines available?, haven't seen any advertised anywhere yet.

Thanks everyone for your input, and hopefully I wont have to change my username to lawndart in a few months.

You will definitely need to go with glow for your first plane. You will not be able to find a good gas engine small enough for a trainer airplane. The smallest good gas engine that I see on TowerHobbies is about 2.1 cubic inches, and you about a .40 cubic inch engine for an average size trainer. Once you become efficient with the trainer and a few others, you can move up to the gassers.

Just because most trainers are small doesn't mean that all trainers are small. I'm sure there's more than one set of plans out there (if not a kit) for a trainer designed with gas engines in mind.

What trainer did you order?

Larry

Bigger , gas burning birds are going to cost more than smaller 40 size planes.
If your looking to save $s, Id look at what type of flying your wanting to do. If buzzing around the field, touch and goes, a few tricks now and again will do you for a while, maybe you could get by with a smaller plane and a 46 LA engine. Oporating costs will be a joke and you can get it flying real cheap as planes go.
Just an idea.

What lordkhomar is trying to do is keep his recurring expenses low through a higher upfront investment. He's willing to spend more on the gas engine/larger plane in order to fly for $1.50 a gallon for gas compared to $12 a gallon for glow. Given that he wants to fly many times per week and doesn't want to have to spend a lot in the future, it makes perfect sense.

I worked with a woman a good while back whose husband was into RC. They had just finished building this big $250k house which was, in my opinion, the womans further attempt to satisfy her sibling rivalry with her sister. Anyways, one day she comes in to work going on and on about how her husband had the nerve to spend $150 on some "stupid RC model kit". Now this guy was an engineer with General Motors so it wasn't like it was creating a big hardship. The way she was going on you'd have thought he spent the grocery money on a hooker!

Did I have a point.......I would try to get your intended involved now. This hobby draws more complaints from the woman than just the money. There's also the time spent in the basement and the many days spent at the field which may be more of an issue with newlyweds then the cash. I know many guys who could never even dream of enjoying this hobby. Their "better" halves would never tolerate them having an afternoon spent at the flying field.

Lastly, I think this hobby can easily be enjoyed working with a small budget. It seems that the problem comes in with wanting to have so many types of planes and the ones you want seem to get progressively larger and larger (read more expensive). Heck, I'm still flying my second plane, a Global American Flyer, I got back in the early 90's with my old Futaba FG that I bought in the 80's.

Jeff

My advice is get a good trainer now,with a standard radio,join a club with an instructor and learn to fly,you can keep the trainer to have fun with or sell it.I fly with gas and glow,both have good and bad points,the least expensive small gas motor I know of is a tad over $300 bucks,lot of motor to stick in the ground with a trainer.A good second or third model would be a 4*120 with a RCS 140 gas with a high end radio and reciever,if you have a good instructor might use this for a trainer,I wouldn't but again???

Don't get married and buy whatever you want

Maybe someone with gasser experience can help, but I've seen them down to the 1.2-1.4 ci range. (Starting to become VERY tempting for me also!)

I would not recommend going to something this large at first, with the thought that it probably will crash at least once. Gassers are larger, ($$$), and also need more/larger servos, yet more money to burn if you crash it.

Also, you mentioned using your existing radio equipment in future planes. Although a good concept, it is usually easier to get another flight pack, this way any of the planes are flyable at any time.

Possibly the BIGGEST advantage for building Spads is cost and time. Once you have your expensive stuff, new planes are about $10 a piece and build time is several hours. Spouses love this
http://www.spadtothebone

Look at the Futaba 9c model radio in either FM or PCM for a very long lasting radio. Look at an OS .46 FX for a very long lasting engine. Maybe a first plane like a goldberg Falcon 3, which is a little more advanced, but you get a good instructor, you will have a good plane for both learning on, and also advanced stuff. You can go with the standard flat bottom winged trainer like an Eagle or one of the Look alike kits and be very happy.

The problem with the big gassers is the storage space to keep them. that can be a problem if you are in an apartment. The .46 engine is economical and works well in a ton of great flying planes.

Dont see any reason why he couldnt start off with a smaller gas engine and a bigger plane. he has experience in the hobby, so it won't be a otal newbie situation.

As far as the wife thing, If a wife/other will not "tolerate" their husband having fun, then expense of RC is the least of your problems.

I am lucky, my girlfriend of many years is more then happy to do her own thing when I do mine. She rides horses, I fly airplanes and drink beer!


mill

If your concerned with the amount of fuel and its cost, go with a 4 stroke. Are more fuel efficient and sound more realistic. A OS Surpass 52 or 70 are a great engines and can move them from a trainer to a more advanced model latter. And as far as a transmitter goes get a Computer type such as a Futaba TX6 can hold p to 6 model adn make the set up of a plane a breeze. EVEN your wife will be able to set them UP )

The DiBo

Minnflyer gave the only advice you need, follow it and you can have anything you want.

The problem with gassers as engines for the beginner is that they don't stand up to the abuse that it will see, such as multiple prop strikes, imperfect tuning, or sloppy setups (ignition battery too close to receiver etc). Also, a broken prop on a 46 is only 3 bucks down the drain. An 18-8 is 15 bucks and up.

Gassers aren't as finicky as glow engines. Tuning really isn't an issue with them. The guy has previous RC experience, and knows what he wants and why he wants it. Everyone should be talking that into account, but instead y'all are trying to send him down the normal beginner path. That isn't appropriate advice for his situation.

If ya want a nice flying kit, that can take you from the re-learning phase back into more advanced flying then a Stick is hard to beat. You could go to a .60 size that is a pretty large airframe for not a lot of $$$. You could build it as tricycle gear to start, then convert it to tail-dragger later. A decent .60 does not burn so much glow fuel that the fuel cost would drive me away.

Of course, I would also recommend a visit to http://www.spadtothebone.com for some free plans so that you can have many spare airframes ready to go... heck, you may even want to do combat if you can find a club nearby.

Welcome back!!!

the rc show case is a good small gas motor 1.4 about 24cc nice running easy to adjust it does require more run time to break in then a glow broke one in for a buddy 8 -10 hours ran great took
about 2 gals $ 3.00 . if you want something big and easy they make a telemaster that would work fine with this or if your going to fly with an instructor thehanger 9 ultra stick is both a great plane for both gentleness and aerobatics a futaba 9c will last you
many many years to come with that radio you can make the airplane as soft as you want or as wild as you want just by dialing it in on the radio and setting up the dual rates. for the better half problem you can do like a lot of guys in our club do
you can piont out the benifit of that it keeps you out of the strip clubs,bars,pool halls,and other seedy parts of town if you make it sound right we have one guy that his wife insists he go flying on good days at least she knows where he is.good luck
roy