A new guy at our field said he uses something called a SwitchGlo in all his planes. The type he has, he says, will ignite the glo plug from channel input on his transmitter and shut itself off 10 seconds later. I'm thinking this might be great for an Ultimate where the engine barely fits in the cowl and it will be hard to get at the glo plug.
Are these any good, and if so, do they have any disadvantages?

ONboard glow igniters have a place, especially in inverted engines. Most will turn on at a set throttle setting, IE when the throttle is at 4K rpm or less, the onboard kicks on, and above 4K,it turns off.

One of our guys, a former club presendent, has designed a glow igniter the checks the resistance of the glow plug andwhen it starts dropping, indicating a cooling plug, it kicks in the onboardglow. No need to coupleit to a throttle setting, when the plug starts cooling down, the onboard glow kicks in.

This setup, or one coupled to throttle setting is a good idea foran inverted engine, Anything that willkeep the glow plug hotat lowRPMs isa plus. However, a poorly tuned engine will not be helpedby these devises. They are an aid, not a crutch.

Don

just get an extension like this one
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...LXSGN8&P=7

Where would you plug the extension into?
Andrew

Looks like it mounts to the cowl (that glow plug looking thingie) and the extension then goes as a "permanant" mount directly to the actual engine glow plug.  Then you use  your normal glow driver.

CGr.

I use one similar on my planes that are cowled. One wire is grounded to the engine and the other to the backside of the glow plug extension. These are nice if you are using a glow ;panel where you have the wire going to the glow plug. Keeps it out of the way. On my sea planes I have it mounted on the top.. BTW CG. poached egg, bacon not crisp-hash browns crispy and Chock-full-of-nuts coffee. What a way to start the morning.

I had a quick egg and sausage sandwich.  I had to head out to the aircraft on the ramp for a ramp test this morning.  I promise to eat healthier tomorrow.. </p>

I wasn't sure about the extension going to a false glow plug setup so I bought the powered internal glow driver.  I believe it has a connect to a servo slot on the RX too.. not sure.. I have to check it out.  But, I have not installed it yet, either.  So, that may be what's next for the airplane.</p>

CGr.</p>