Hi everyone,

I flew for the first time yesterday, and my little quart of fuel is now nearly empty.

It looks like glow fuel is an expensive buy no matter where you get it from, but I see that tower hobbies sells a 0% blend that's really cheap.

Would this work? My engine is a GP .42, and my area is around sea-level (I've heard this plays into it somehow).

Thanks!

0% nitro fuel will usually work in most engines. In your case, the GP .42 is a bushing engine (correct me if I'm wrong) and you need to be aware that bushing engines prefer castor oil for lubrication. Nitro in the fuel helps make the engine more forgiving in adjustment, but how it will affect your engine is pretty difficult to predict. Each engine is a little different. Also, read the owner's manual for the engine and see if there is a specific requirement on nitro content. So in summary, you can probably safely use 0% nitro fuel as long as it contains the proper oil for your engine. HTH

You also get a better price when you buy a gallon jug instead of a puny quart. Tower will PROBABLY charge you a hazardous material shipping fee as well as reg shipping, thereby running up your costs. Have you checked your LHS gallon prices? Should be able to get a gallon of 10% for @$15.

Remember the old saying: You get what you pay for, within limits.

Are you a student working with an instructor? Are you a member of an RC club?
If yes to either, where do they buy fuel?

If no, the AMA web site has a hobby shop search
http://www.modelaircraft.org/hobbyshopsearch.aspx
The list is not comprehensive but at least it's a start.
If you select just 'New Jersey' you get 8 results.

I fly 0% nitro, homebrew fuel. I fly at 7500ft above sea level with an O.S .46 AX on a Hobbico NexStar. It runs perfectly fine. You'll have a harder time setting the high needle but thats about it.

I haven't used nitro for the last 50 years and so far I've never found an engine that doesn't work perfectly well without it but I can't comment on how much difference it makes to setting the needle. I've always found it very easy.

Ditto on the comments about using castor with plain bearings, preferably nothing less than 20% total and the more castor the better.

0% is hard to find at hobby shops in the U.S. Most carry 10% and higher. A gallon jug of 10% should cost about $13. If they are chargin much more than this you need to find another hobby shop.

a gallon of 10% is $13!thats only £6.50,you lucky people.

We know that you guys in the UK are really getting stuck with high prices. We cry about our high gas prices but if we had to pay what you pay for petrol we could float a boat on our tears. What does petrol sell for over there these days?

£4.50 a gallon,that's $9 to you guys!and my car is only doing 16 mpg around town[X(]

oooo, that would suck.

I ran some FAi last year. It seemed to work better in my Super Tigres and ASP's. I didn't see a whole lot of difference between that and 10% until someone told me to try taking the head shim out of the ASP for the FAI. It ran better on that than it ever did on 5 or 10%. I didn't get to try it with the Super Tigre (removing the shim) I was having such a blast with the ASP, I used it all up.

Yeah, not good. In the general vicinity of $3 here depending on where you live. And everyone here loves to drive constantly it seems.
Just used a money exchange program.
4.5 UK pounds is actually $8.03 today but still plenty high (or $9.38 Canadian).

don't know what currency converter you use but £4.50 is $9.16 at current rates which makes ordering from hong kong based suppliers wonderful for us brits.

Use this: http://www.xe.com/ucc/

According to it, 4.50 GBP = 9.16305 USD

Maybe my converter was out of date.

Thanks, you guys are great. How long does glow fuel generally keep for? I don't want to go buying a 4-gallon jug of 0%, even as cheap as it is, if it'll go bad over the course of the year when I'm not flying it.

Also, quick question-

The guy that had my trainer before I did must have really sucked at applying monokote, because as soon as the right half of the elevator got oil and fuel on it while it was in the air, it started to come off. I cleaned off the wood with alcohol and talcum poweder (it didn't get too much oil on it, luckily), but now I have to cover that section again. Is there a general guide to apply coatings? I've never done it nor seen it done before, and I really have no idea how it would be done- especially considering the elevator's in the way, so I can't wrap it around that edge.

When I do figure out how to do it, can I use a regular clothes iron on a low setting? I'd really rather not spent 30 bucks on a specialized iron or heat gun. Looks don't matter to me- this is just a trainer..

Check out this thread
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_34...31/key_/tm.htm pg 31 starting at post 609 and going on for what will seem like forever. Ken does an excellent job of demonstrating techniques.
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXL499 $13 isn't bad for a proper iron.
Minnflyer has some excellent videos available on covering but I don't have the links handy. Someone will post them shortly I'm sure.

BTW - the home iron COULD work but you need to be careful because the extra weight can break the fragile structure if not used correctly.