i've been looking at the tower trainer .40 kit and looks like a good kit, just wondering what would be a really good easy to use engine(like something that starts good), i have a couple nitro cars and an electric plane but now i'm looking at Nitro planes and just want an easy engine

Yes i will have an instructor,

Thanks, Austin

Evolution .46

I am a O.S. fan myself, never had a bad one yet and am running five of them right now. I do have one evolution .46. I do not fly it as much as my O.S., but to date I have never had a problem with it either.

OS .46 AX. I fired if up the first time, very little tuning and it just flys and flys and flys.

The .46AX is a fine engine. I'm partial to ball bearing engines myself. Some like the .46LA which is a bushed engine and not as powerful and has a bleed air carb. The .46LA would be fine for the Tower trainer. Also consider the Thunder Tiger engine line.

I can recommend 3 engines.

The OS 46AX, the Thunder Tiger Pro 46 and the Evolution 46.

All 3 engines are extremely user friendly, start easily, are powerful and are very reliable. The OS and Evolution are rear needle valve (remote needle valve ). The Thunder Tiger is a front needle valve (needle valve is angled towards the rear for safety ).

The Evolution engine is "supposed" to be broken in at the factory, however, I would still recommend breaking it in with a couple of tanks of fuel on the ground.

The choice is up to you (and your budget ). You will not go wrong with any of these engines.

Hope this helps.

I recently built the Tower Trainer .40 MkII ARF, and every engine mentioned so far would make it come out nose heavy. I know, because I put an O.S. .46 FX on mine, and it's nose heavy.

I'd actually recommend a ball-bearing .36 like the Evolution or Thunder Tiger Pro .36. A bushing-supported .40-size glow engine like the O.S. .40 LA or Thunder Tiger GP-42 would also be an excellent choice. The Tiger Trainer .40 MkII ARF is surprisingly lightweight, and any of these engines will power it with plenty of authority. My .46 FX is way more power than the plane needs, but it's what I happened to have on hand.

You mentioned you were looking at the "kit," which if you mean to glue the sticks together yourself is another matter. Kits will often turn out heaver than ARFs, and the kit has a shorter wingspan, so a .46 ball-bearing engine might be more appropriate if you are really planning on kit-building your trainer.

If you're planning on assembling the ARF version, there is one .40-sized ball bearing 2-stroke that appears to be lightweight enough to be a great fit for the Tower Trainer .40 Mk II, the Norvel AX-40. It ways about 4 ounces less than my .46 FX, so it will balance the plane much better. It is also available directly through Sig's website http://www.sigmfg.com for only $59.99 plus S&H.

A .46 ball-bearing 2-stroke in the 16 to 17 ounce weight range makes the Tower Trainer .40 MkII ARF nose heavy enough that I'm still considering buying a replacement engine in spite of the fact that I have two extra .46 FXi engines laying around and a GMS .47 still new in the box. If I don't buy a Norvel AX-40, my second choice would probably be the TT GP-42.

I have the OS .46 fxi that comes with the NEXTAR as well as the .46AX the AX seems to be a faster running engine and dragges my sport plane around without any problems super reliable and a solid performer the fxi has been a little bit more tempermental but also runs really good OS in general is a great brand very reliable a little more expensive but worth a few extra $$

Yep, .46 AX is a great engine, it's just too heavy for the Tower Trainer .40 though.

As others have said, you can't go wrong with OS. I have two .46-AX's. Both start easy and run excellent. I also had a .46-LA on a Tower trainer ARF a while ago. It was a good combination.

For the money, I would add my name to the 'O.S. .46 AX' list.

This engine will take you through your second plane. I began to learn hovers with this engine on an ultra-stick .40. I did not, however, finish learning hovers on that plane. I think I still have most of the engine.

If you find it a bit heavy for a trainer, just move the battery back an inch or two further till it balances. Trainers can take PLENTY of extra weight, but adding lead to a plane is like...giving-up.

I built mine with an O.S. .46 FX, which is slightly lighter weight than the .46 AX. It's too heavy. I have my battery pack moved as far back into the tail section as far as I can reach through the formers, and it doesn't balance. It went from "way too tail heavy" to "significantly tail heavy." The battery is way behind the back of the servo tray, way back.

O.S. .46 AX = 17.2 oz w/ muffler - too heavy

This is not the ideal engine for the Tower Trainer .40 Mk II. It has way more power than the airframe can use, and the extra weight up front makes it very difficult to balance with a standard 600mah NiCd receiver battery unless you add a fair amount of weight to the tail. You either have to increase the wing loading to balance it, or simply fly it more nose heavy than it should be and live with hotter-than-normal landings.

An engine in the 12 ~ 13 oz range would balance much more easily on this airframe, and the drop in maximum horsepower wouldn't be missed.

Apparently I wasn't clear about this, the O.S. Max .46 AX is a wonderful engine that is too heavy and too powerful for the Tower Trainer .40

Here is my nose-heavy Tower Trainer .40 Mk II flying just a couple of weeks ago with its unbalancing O.S. Max .46 FX on the nose:



I'm not guessing about this folks, I just built one. Use a lighter engine and save the .46 AX for a nice sport plane.

Cheap, good & reliable - ASP 52 (runs happily on 5% and is so easy to tune)
Cheap good and powerful - MVVS 49 (hate the looks but its got very good torque)
Little expensive and nice to own - OS46AX etc (its a nice engine for sure but you pay a premium)
One of the most purchased engines with decent price and is reliabile - TT46 (everyone who uses it love them and its like 90% of that is used at my flying field)
Powerful and cranky - Rossi 45 (a real screamer on 5% nitro)

My money is on the ASP 52, its about 30% cheaper than a TT46 in Malaysia and about 45% cheaper than the OS46AX. She idles really well and is not fussy or tempremental. Will turn a 12x6 prop.

ASP .52 is a nice engine. I own one of those, too, except here in the U.S. they're known as the Magnum XLS .52A

The only problem is, at 500 grams including muffler, the ASP .52 is eleven grams heavier than the O.S. .46 AX, which is too heavy!

We need a lighter weight engine here, folks.

I had an Evo .455 on my Tower trainer. Ran fine till the temps got in the low 30`s. and then it was very unrelieable.

Switched to a SuperTigre GS40 , cheap little engine , but a little hard to dial in, and had to go thru the carb to get everything sealed.

After dumb thumbing the Tower trainer , I built a LT40 and installed the Evo. Pulled the 70 in. wing around a little to much power and back to the flame outs when the temps fell , so I installed the GS40 on it. This is my favorite engine, and is a great match for a trainer size 40. The 46 I believe is to big for a trainer, and was teaching myself some bad habits on take off and landings , by having the extra power.

It`s hard to explain, but the trainer handles like a different plane with the smaller engine on it. It seemed so jerky with the .46 and I really did`nt care for the way the plane flew with it installed. IMHO , over powering a trainer will teach a student bad habits on take off and landings and performing maneuver's. I was relying on the extra power and not my flying skills.

BigEd - ASP and Magnum and SC are from the same factory but the price will be different depending on which you buy. Are you kidding or are you serious? 11g is too heavy? 11g is less than 1/2 oz!!! ASP is available from www.galtechmodels.com. Hope its cheap!

Ed said that he felt the ASP was HEAVIER than the OS 46AX by 11 grams and that the OS 46AX was already too heavy. This therefore made the ASP even MORE too heavy. Nowhere did he say 11 grams (by itself) was too heavy.

He was quite clear in the way he stated this.

Wow, what a weird thread! Yes, I agree, Ed was very clear--in fact he was very clear about six or eight times, but it doesn't matter. People keep going back to the 46-ball-bearing-is-best advice no matter what the plane weighs, where it balances or what the pilot wants to use it for.

There are lots of terrific .36 engines out there that weigh around 11 - 12 ozs and have more power than almost any .40 of 20 years ago, like my Irvine .36 or the TT .36. They are excellent choices for lots of the lighter .40-size planes.

Jim

just wondering what would be a really good easy to use engine(like something that starts good
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Question was (see above). Not what the weight is or which one has the best bearings ect. I still say Evolution wins and it will outlast your plane and several more if you take care of it..

Silly us. We didn't realize that a .36 engine fell within the REQUESTED .40 -.50 size. Nor did we realize we were comparing to 20 year old engines. Again, silly us.

While your point of them being fine for light .40 size planes is a valid one they also limit future use to smaller/lighter planes.

How many guys do you know who have only one engine? What you might use it for next isn't the best criterion for what you need it for now.

As to the .36 being outside the requested range, and as long as we're being silly, what did you think about the .52? It's not really the point, is it. The point seemed to be a suitable engine for the plane. Silly me.

Jim

For a tower trainer 40 i'd use a Super Tigre 40 or 45 below.

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXFV69&P=0

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXFV71&P=0

Super Tigre engines aren't as bad as some people say!

Ahh, but you clipped off the most important part of the initial thread:

Nobody has mentioned a bad engine in this thread, just engines that aren't right for project at hand. A trainer should be well balanced and the wing loading should be as light as possible for it to fly smoothly and gently.

I mentioned the Evo .36 as a good possibility. He wants a really good easy to use engine (like something that starts good) for a Tower Trainer .40. Since the title of his post mentions .40 to .50 sized engines in particular, in addition to the Evo .36 and the TT Pro .36 I mentioned the .40 LA, the GP-42, and I specifically recommended the Norvel AX-40 as a great choice for the Tower Trainer that would help balance the airframe.

I think the whole problem with this thread so far is that everyone read the title, "Good .40 to .50 sized engine" and then started throwing out engines without reading what he was going to use it for.

Insanemoondoggie's post about his Tower Trainer experience with the Evo .455 is very eye-opening. His description of flying overpowered trainers is excellent, and I find my Tower Trainer flying in a similar "jerky" fashion where the .46 FX engine is pulling the airframe around behind it rather than the plane flying on the wing like a trainer should. I've switched my .46 FX over to an 11x4 APC prop to try to slow it down to some degree.

A ball-bearing .36 or bushed .40 should pull a Tower Trainer around with plenty of power while smoothing it out and making it fly on the wing more. It would also make the plane much easier to balance rather than having to add weight or fly it nose heavy. I'm really surprised that Insanemoondoggie got a GS-40 to balance on a Tower Trainer, the muffler is very heavy and the engine weighs in at about 2oz. heavier than a .46 AX. I would think you'd need a roll of nickels taped to the tail to get a Tower Trainer .40 to balance with a 19 oz engine on the nose.

If you want a sturdy fun flying plane i'd get the Goldberg Falcon lll below before i'd get the tower trainer 40. My nephew had a tower trainer and liked my Falcon lll lots better than the tower trainer.

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXDJB5&P=0

Here's mine below and I have over 650 flights on it and still going strong. I refuse to part with it.

IMO any good .40-.46 engine will be good, as you can make an easy swap into another plane later down the road.
But as Big ED said, you will have to get the balance right. you will also have to learn throttle control, and proper prop selection
will be critical.

I use an older .40 tower engine on my PT 40 trainer and it has impressive performance. but with the control throws set to
low and an 11x6 prop It flies very tame provided I use throttle control. My flying weight is 5 1/2 pounds. and the wingspan is 60"
and it floats very good but not excessively like the kadet senior I learned on.