Gas or electric?
Is one better for a beginner?

I have to go with glow. Stick time is very important in the learning stages. With a glow engine you can get 20+ minute flight times. With electric your looking at 8 minutes tops.

Gas. Don't care for electric. Have a few but wouldn't teach on them.

2 different hobbies altogether

How about neither? If you have a slope nearby, which you probably do in Washington, you can fly for HOURS with no fuel and for absolutely free. You also have a large selection of virtually indestructible EPP foamy planes and glider flying teaches you a lot of unique piloting skills. But you should still find an instructor because it's no fun hiking down that hill to retrieve a crashed plane over and over again.

Correction, 3 different hobbies altogether.

Statements like this one never cease to amaze me.

Yes you can get 20 minute flights or better with glow engines you can also get the same duration with today's electrics.

Whether you chose electric or glow is more of a perference!!

if you are interested in electric powered flight check out ezonemag.com

I personnally like both. Electric flight is much less messy and engine tuning is not a factor charge the batteries and go fly..

Crashem, I've seen electrics get very long flight times, they either are able to catch a thermal and shut down the motor and soar or they have dropped a barrel full of money down on expensive motors or battery packs. Neither of these options are easy for a beginner.

The best thing to do is to find an RC club where you will be flying and go visit them. The most common type of flying is with glow engine planes. If you are more interested in E power there may be an electric flyer at the RC club that can help you out. From what I have seen E power will slow your training time down. Unless you have very expensive motors and large battery packs you will be limited to flying in very light breezes. Also the battery pack is only good for 1 flight before it needs to be recharged. You can replace the battery pack after 1 flight but then you have to put the dead pack on charge while you get in your second flight. Does the RC field have a plug in for your charger?? The alternative is to have 5 or 6 extra battery packs to get in an average days training. Best of luck, Fast!

rc_sport,

What you say is only partially true. I get 12-15 min flight on a $30 NiMH flight pack in my tigermoth. I have heard of guys using surplus Lion (qualcomms) from cell phone (even less expensive on ebay) and geting 30-40 min flight times. If you are familar with the GWS tigermoth then you would know that thermaling is not an option.

I was simply pointing out that your blanket statement of 8 min tops for electric flight times is incorrect. If you perfer glow to electric thats fine. We are all bais towards the type of flying and aircraft we perfer. I simply didn't want to see a beginner receive advice based on an inaccurate statement..

It purely depends on your circumstances.

I started with a Hobbico Superstar 60. I'd drive about half hour to the local flying field, set everything up, find a buddy box and then try to get hold of an instructor. All said and done, I'd be lucky to get in more than 2 flights for a whole day at the field.

Wasted time if you've got a family at home.

So I bought a GWS Tiger Moth and flew it myself at the local park. I could take the family with me and the kids could play on the swings while I flew the moth. Despite my lack of experience that Moth is still in good condtion and even survived a 100' drop out of the sky when it went out of range.

Recently I bought a Ripmax Zephyr. Its a lightweight 3 channel plane for glow or electric. I put an OS 15 in it and took it to the field. One day, couple of weeks ago, due to snow I had the field to myself so I got in 7 flights before it got dark.

The next day there were other club members there so I couldn't fly solo (club & AMA rules). But it was easy to get help as all I needed was someone to stand next to me (no buddy box).

When I get back to the Superstar (and the buddy box) I'll probably only need a couple of flights to solo on it.

Bottom line is: If you have unlimited access to glow stick time e.g. you have a friend that can help then go for it. However, if the scenario above looks likely, then a parkflyer will go a long way to shorten your training time.

BTW with 2 batteries, a fast charger and no-one else to worry about you can get a lot more stick time on a small electric....