I have been flying for a little while and I am moving up and purchasing the Tower Hobbies Trainer 40 (to be flown with an instructor). I was wondering what type of glow fuel to use? (i.e. 10% or 15%). Thanks.

Well, can you tell us what engine you are going to put on it?

Ahh knew i forgot something. Its the rtf so it has a tower hobbies .46
Here's the link- http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXJA86&P=ML

The TH .46 is a pretty good engine with a bearing supported crank shaft. I would run 15% in it to mae needle settings a little less finicky and synthetic oil blend. Just my opinion. For busshinged engines you should run fuel with real castor oil in it by the way and higher nitro content can make dificult to tune engines a little easier.

Thank you so much

We're going into winter. Less nitro in the fuel means "warmer" combustion. Winter cold packs more oxygen into the air going into the engine, so you don't need nitro. It basically provides more oxygen for the combustion. So there are a couple of reasons to save on lower nitro fuel during the winter.

Truth is, 5% nitro is about the best value for sport flying. Better mileage, enough nitro to smooth out needle settings, and it's cheaper.

Until you've flown enough to be able to tell the difference, save some money on lower nitro fuel and spend the savings on props or such.

Let me step in the middle here. Use Morgan Fuels Omega 10% and you will find it's a fuel that can be used for most glow engines as your squadron grows.

if you can get 5%, buy it, if not get 10%. you 15% is waste for a two stroke (for the average sports flying joe).
get 18% oil with some castor (look for wildcat XX% nitro extra, meaning 18% oil), do not get all synthetic. those tower engine are tight when you first start them (need a starter) also keep the engine above half throttlefor the first tank or the engine will quit in flight. have the instructor fly around for a few flights (at least two full tanks) before you get to training. the engine is great it just needs some time to break in.

No no!! You must use Power Master 15% or your engines will never run! I think I have tried every brand of fuel on the market and all of them seem to work very well. I buy the brand that is on sale. About the only thing I have stuck with is the 15% nitro but only because it works very well in every size of engine I use. Only reason I use PM most the time is I have always gotten it at a good price, when PM isn't on sale then I usually go to the Omega but I have to drive across town to get it.

Swimmin both will work just fine in your application and and your likely densitys altitudes.
Forgive me and my ignorance of your part of the country but I am assuming relatively low elevations.

Nitro aside from competition purposes is very useful in helping out folks who have to fly at high elevation or more correctly high density altitudes (true altitude corrected for pressure and temperature). Performance of all aircraft is directly affected by density altitude.

In this region of the country folks will tend to use 10% nitro up to around 3000, 3500 feet you will find the most common use is 15%. Then perhaps above 5000 you will start to see a lot of 25% in use.

This is speaking of two strokes .25 to 90 sized.

I have frequented a club and flying site that is close to 7000 and when a low lander shows up with his 10% and thinks its OK, everyone gathers for the takeoff show.

John

You know I live a couple of miles from Chief Aircraft and I can get a real good deal on Power Master. But the stuff stinks and my wife hates the smell, it runs just fine. We even had a club member whose Dr told him he was allergic to it. Me I've been flying since I was a kid and Omega works just fine and I always recommend it to new pilots. Now personally I've bought and flown many many different types of fuel but I'm not just starting out. I once bought several cases of Red Maxx at our clubs swap meet that was so cheap I could not pass it up. But Power Master is against the wifes rules and she flies also so I don't use it. A friend game me some O'Donnell fuel early this year and I was quite unimpressed. But it was free so I burned it. Now if someone would just give me some free gas for my truck!. I'm with you Gray Beard, most of it is just fine. But Omega is awful good for the new kids.

Until the engine is broken in it is going to be hard to tune and may seem to run rough so bear this in mind. For the first half to full gallon you need to verify the needle setting before each flight. After that you should be able to fly several times before any adjustments are needed. But it should be a good habit to verify that the engine is running in tune before the flying day. Your instructions will tell you how.

My last load for me (not a club buy) Powermaster works just fine.

Out of curiosity, what was your per gallon cost?

Oppose Its hard to say right now, I normally buy in bulk from the retail california chain that Gray Beard talks about can purchase it around four dollars a gallon less than their current shelf price on that particular day.

The self price of course can change quite often and quite volatile. The largest buys I have made have been fifty gallons (in gallon cans, I don't do barrels for me) and the smallest around 28 gallons.

That is around enough to last me hopefully 6 months plus. I am using less these days.

I made my first big buy from Joe Bridi who at the time was making a slow move to his home down on the River not to far from here. Mr. Joe who I think had an interest in a blender in Rialto Ca. Had hauled up a load in his big van along with a lot of his kits from california for a club group down at the river. Well as so often happens on group buys after he had hauled the stuff litteraly to their doorstep they started backing out and changing everything.

It was at that point he called me and of course first thing I said was how much and my reply to his answer was you bet all of it. Drove on up the hill right to my front door. It was an eye opener and unfortunately he got out of his fuel interest shortly after but it lasted me happily for a year.

After that i started to buy from the California chain in bulk buys and never failed to get a great price at around four bucks less than the current self price. The trick is to only go blind during the slow part of the week and do not call ahead wanting to make a deal. During the slow part of the week the manager is wanting to increase his daily receipts and I always carry sufficient cash. Cash always carries a bigger stick over credit cards simply because the manager will avoid credit card cost.

Twenty perhaps thirty gallons and up always works and everyone is happy. On some occasions they have cleaned out all they have in the back as well as the selves and I may not get as much as I planned but thats fine and the store wants to move the product.

I have been called selfish and even immoral in doing this but it is in no way any different than any club doing exactly the same thing as a collective. I cannot easily go into any store as a gympy guy and I prefer to keep my store visits to a minimum the once to twice a year buy makes great sense for me both physically and financially.

John[8D]

Wow!

4.00/ga!

Even at 6.00/ga that's a bargain!

Around here our LHS's are charging $24.00 for 15% at the moment.

No, no I think you misunderstood, its four dollars a gallon 'OFF' whatever the store price was that day.

Hmm perhaps after this post that door will shut down []

Sorry, so what was the per gallon price?

I can,t remember any specifics as that last buy was six or seven months ago and any specific number would be irrelavent anyway.

I,ve enough to last I think maybe two more months so time for another run Heck maybe I can run into Gray Beard at Twice Nice. That place is always a mandatory stop even though its not where I buy the fuel. Much, much better than the dumb Casinos

5%[sm=thumbs_up.gif] + 1

Our club buys in bulk 15% full syn comes out to 9.00 a gallon shipped. 55 gallon drum

The last sale at Hobby People was $13.00 a jug for 15% Power Master. When I was buying in bulk cases a few years back the price I was getting it at was $13.00 so when it comes up on sale here it usually goes from a low of $13.00 to about $15.00. It is on sale fro about a week during most holidays or three day weekends. Yes, PM does stink but it's the Castor in the blend. My flight clothing right out of the washing machine still smells like castor. Fuel Smell: back in the 50s I was using Thumbledrome {spelling} glow fuel and loved the smell. When I first started flying RC I was using Power Master, that's what we could get so that is what we used. The stink about knocked me over but I got used to it. There are now fuels or addatives for fuel that you can use, just something real wrong about peach or cherry smelling fuel so I will give it a pass and put up with Castor stink. $13.00 a gallon!!!!
Cheap Gene

No it's not the Castor that stinks, all I fly are fuels with Castor in it, have since I was a kid. I don't know what it is but it's strong. The smell of Castor is what I expect to smell. I put some coconut additive in some fuel once. Drove everyone crazy trying to figure where the smell came from, not too many coconut palms in Oregon. Nope Castor I like and like you my clothes smell like Castor oil, the wife leaves the flying clothes in the garage. I don't know what it is in PM that stinks so but the wife ain't having none of it so I just stay with Omega normally. We have some guys who fly nothing but PM all the time since Chief Aircraft is so close and we can get a good deal on it. Whenever they start everyone else just walks a couple tables away to get away from the odor.

Back in the 50-60s nitroethane was used instead of nitromethane in some fuels. Because we used all castor for oil, and it's so distinctive, it was hard to smell the difference but you could.

Possibly the smell is nitroethane and it's more obvious without the castor smell.

I think it's the synthetic oils that are giving off the offensive odor? I like the castor smell...but the castor is a minor % compared to the synthetic...in the typical "sport" blend of Powermaster and Omega.