Why gas instead of electric?
 

I want to get into the hobby with my son, but know nothing about it yet. It seems like electric would be a lot easier to start with.

What are some good reasons to start with gas?

RE: Why gas instead of electric?
 

When I taught my son to fly I bought him a Teddy, an all foam, high wing, electric. He flew my gas trainer on a buddy box for about 10 flights then soloed on the Teddy.

Electrics are fine for training but the need to be flown. What I mean is that you cannot just pull up elevator and expect the airplane to go up (I am not talking a 3D foamy here but a high wing trainer). With a gas airplane you can go up on a whim and not worry about it. I am clumsily saying that a gas airplane will be more forgiving when gaining altitude and getting out of trouble. An electric, however, is more forgiving in a crash (they don't break as bad!), is less expensive, and is usually slower.

I like and fly both, from a foamy to a 30% CAP and everything in between. Electrics are fine and I recommend them but I honestly believe that a gas trainer is more advantageous.

ONE LAST VERY IMPORTANT THING, please find a local club, join, and get an instructer. These things are not as easy to fly as they look.

Welcome to the hobby.

RE: Why gas instead of electric?
 

There are a few eletric trainers at the club I fly and to be honest everyone looks underpowered to the point they would be difficult for a begginer to fly. I know there are some powerful electric motors out there but these cost $$. From what I have seen an equivalent eletric set up is about double the cost of a gas motor by the time you add the motor, ESC, batteries, charger etc. I would recommend the gas plane. I also highly recommend joining a club and getting proper instruction.l

RE: Why gas instead of electric?
 

Whether you start with electric or glow, you should have an instructor - local clubs provide instructors at no charge. You will learn faster, properly and with little or no damage to the plane while learning with an instructor.

The advantages to an electric plane are substantially less noise, they can be flown in a smaller area, fly much slower than a glow plane, are clean and require less peripheral equipment at the field.

The downside to quite a few electrics are:

1. Their light weight . Many of them, in particular the park flyer size trainers, have difficulty with wind much over 5 mph. The wind factor realisticly limits the time you can fly to early morning or early evening or those rare days with little/no wind.

2. The majority of them require a hand launching, even if flying off of a paved area.

3. Disappointing performance, especially with trainers using the stock motor and battery pack.

4. The majority of smaller electrics, trainers in particular, are only 3 channel - rudder, elevator and throttle, or elevator, aileron and throttle. This means when you go to a more advanced plane you will be adding the 4th channel and have to relearn some of your flying skills.

Advantages to glow planes

1. Glow planes are easier to see because they are larger.

2. They are substantially heavier than many electrics so they handle wind much better. MOST glow trainers can easily handle 10 - 15 mph winds.

3. The MAJORITY of glow trainers are 4 channel - rudder, elevator, aileron and throttle.

Disadvantages to glow planes

1. They require a much larger area to fly in.

2. They are noisey and in a lot of places it restricts where you can fly.

3. They require more peripheral equipment at the field.

4. They fly much faster than electric planes.

5. They are messy and do require cleaning at the end of the day (no biggy - 5 minutes with some Windex and paper towels).

With all that being said, I personally find that after learning on a glow powered plane you will be able to fly either electric or glow. I also find that due to their larger size, it is easier to incorporate features you may want in an advanced plane (flaps, retractable landing gear, etc) without a noticeable loss in performance.

IMHO, I feel both you and your son would get more enjoyment and a lot less disappointment learning on a glow powered plane over an electric. People have learned on both types so you need to weigh the pros and cons of each. There are many people here that can help you with selection of equipment whichever way you decide.

RE: Why gas instead of electric?
 

All the above replies are good, and show the differences between the two.
When I started I was thinking of getting a EP plane because of less cost.
But after watching one of them fly, I saw that it would not be good for me,
So I then started looking into getting a more powerful EP model, But WoW
the price sure adds up quick... I ended up with a Glow trainer.. My grandson
started buddying with me, But he really did not like flying my trainer, So he
bought a superstar EP RTF... He tried to take-off but could not, So I took it
up and handed him the controls. He flew alright but had problems.. Anyway
after a couple of days of flying the EP model, He finally said.. Maybe I
should have just kept flying your trainer it's way easier to fly then this plane,
I said you should have and I aways asked you why you didn't.. He then said
he was afraid of crashing my plane... Anyway that's my que on this:-)
Good luck with your choice!! Oh...:-) Good advise on Clubs, AMA and help!!

RE: Why gas instead of electric?
 

Campy said just about everything.

The electrics might look cheaper at first, but when you factor in the cost of two or three battery packs and a quality charger, they cost about the same. And those batteries don't last forever. In just a few monthes, you notice thier performance deminishing. And the planes aren't as durable. I believe the gas planes are a better value.

But ask yourself this. Do I want to drive out to a club field two or three times a week to fly? Or would it be better to attempt a parkflyer closer to home? (without instruction) (add the cost of another plane or two)

Many established flyers are switching to electrics, (aka parkflyers) for the conveinence. But for instruction, you would have to drive to the club anyway.

If you plan on flying at a club, (recommended) you might as well go with gas.

If you decide to go with gas planes, you are taking the plunge. You join the AMA and you join a club. And you commit to driving to the club several times per week, attending monthly meetings and helping maitain the field. Plenty of father/son time. Less father/mother time. I highly recommend her blessing first, then you aren't held souly responsible for time away.

RE: Why gas instead of electric?
 

You might want to consider the amount of space you have to transport your equipment too.

I learned on electrics and am (still) building my first glow .40 trainer. As the thing goes together though, I have no idea how I'm going to transport this thing in my 2 seater Fiero. It looks much smaller on the box!

Not all electrics are nasty in the wind. It depends on the design (and the amount of and kind of wind).

RE: Why gas instead of electric?
 

Before you make a decision, visit a local club. Talk to the members and let them help you choose what is best for you. In some cases, you might get a chance for some hands-on, buddy box stick time to experience some of the thrills (and "terrors").

RE: Why gas instead of electric?
 

I can only add one thing to what has been said do far. I love the smell of nitro and the sound of a well tuned glow engine. Although I have been looking at electrics for a while now, I still like the "heavy metal" stuff.

RE: Why gas instead of electric?
 

Other training basics: the standard for transmitter radios is considered 1 hour flight time. Now if you go electric power for the plane you may get 8-10 minutes flight time. Now you have a dead battery in the plane. You either have to take it out and replace with a freshly charged battery or stop and recharge the battery in the plane. This means that you either buy a fast charger or buy extra battery packs for the plane. Extra packs means that you have a whole bunch of batterys to recharge at the end of the day. If you go glow power instead, then after a standard 10 minute flight, you refuel the plane and you are ready to go again. another thing, the transmitters that come with small park flyers have limited range. If you decide to try glow planes after buying the foamy then you will need to buy a better radio. Hope this info helps, Fast![8D]

RE: Why gas instead of electric?
 

I have to agree here. I like the noise - It's the sound of power and it really gets my juices flowing.

Do yourself a favor, click on "Magazine" at the top of the page and read some of the reviews. Most of them are accompanied by videos. Check out the videos and see for yourself whether it's glow or electric that you'd like to be doing.

RE: Why gas instead of electric?
 

For me it is simply POWER & price. E-models, with the kind of performance available from a modest glow plane, are hugely expensive -- and they don't sound like the real thing.

RE: Why gas instead of electric?
 

One more vote for glow. I've tried electrics and just not the same. I've not tried the 5-6lb electrics but have already done foam and balsa, geared and brushless outrunner. While nice for some very specific moments when I don't want the grime of nitro, it has relegated itself to the shelf most of the time.

The sound of nitro, particularly that of a fourstroke engine is unbeatable.

Another thing is that you never have to worry about buying and maintaining batteries. I've already ruined 2 11.1V lipos by running them down too much. That costs money. But then, stupidity usually does!!!

RE: Why gas instead of electric?
 

10 years ago I would have said only gas, electrics back then sucked, now days though, electrics and batteries have come a long way. They make some good ones. I have a little electric that is amazing. The motors are so much more and better built, the batteries last longer.

you won't save any money going electric, but you can learn on them just as well if its what you want to do.

RE: Why gas instead of electric?
 

Skaggydogg-

I agree with most everything everyone else has said. The big thing to look at is where you want to end up. You mentioned in another post buying a sim and practicing on that first. Doing so would help you decide what you want to end up flying. If you want to end up flying glow planes, I would go ahead and start with a glow plane and join a local club. The $200+ you will end up spending on electric could have been put towards a glow plane. The only thing you can get for under $200 is a RTF park flyer like an aerobird, etc. that will not have radio equipment that you can move to another plane. In order to get a decent electric setup, you will spend as much as you would for glow.

That said, I learned on a glow trainer, but just bought a GWS Slow Stick electric to get my son started. My son is much younger (7) than your son and I don't think he would be able to learn on a glow trainer just yet. I can tell you that flying something like a Slow Stick is completely different than a glow plane and could teach some bad habits. For example, I can shut down the power and take my hands off the stick and the Slow Stick will gently come to rest on the ground without any damage. With a glow trainer, it would probably stall and come in like a rock. The top speed on most electrics is slower than the stall speed on most glow planes.

Whatever you do, have fun and enjoy the time with your son!

-Scott

RE: Why gas instead of electric?
 

Shaggydog,

If you haven't already go over to ezonemag.com they specialize in electrics. This place (RCU) especially the beginners forum seems more glow oriented.

Glow or electric? is like the Ford or Chevy debate.

Do your research hook up with some local modelers and above all take the answers posted on forums like this with a grain of salt and have fun!!! Good luck

RE: Why gas instead of electric?
 

Re: "Glow or electric? is like the Ford or Chevy debate. " I don't think this is quite right. Comparing different brands of 40 size glow trainers is certainly like this but comparing a park flyer to a glow trainer is more like comparing learning how to ride bicycles vs. learning to drive cars! [8D]

RE: Why gas instead of electric?
 

No, it's more like comparing cars to golf carts :D

RE: Why gas instead of electric?
 

Well, if you're asking about .40 - .60 sized nitro planes compared to small park flier electrics, that is an apples and oranges comparison. If you are asking about nitro vs. electric for the same size planes, then that is an apples-apples comparison...

A nitro power system has a much higher power:weight ratio than brushed electric power system with NiMH or NiCd batteries. If you shell out the big bucks for LiPo batteries and a brushless motor and controller, you can begin to approach the nitro power:weight ratio (some even claim to exceed it). The disadvantage is cost... you'll pay several hundred dollars for LiPo cells, brushless setup, and LiPo charger. One can argue about cost of nitro vs. brushless/LiPo over the lifetime of the power system, but I'm still not convinced going brushless makes sense for me yet... I'm sticking to nitro for now! The obvious advantages are that it is cleaner and relatively quieter (they do have a high-pitched whine/scream).

Find a local club that you want to learn & fly at, and I think you'll find they would encourage nitro .40 -.60 sized trainers over the electric options in the same class/size...

RE: Why gas instead of electric?
 

As far as cost goes, I just got an extreme rc yak last month. The plane was $89, with motor, it was $200. On top of that, I had to order micro radio, batteries, and a charger for them. Have over $600 in this little park flyer now. Who would have guessed that!! Who ever said electric was cheaper didn't research it very well.

Its a fun plane, stable as all get out when set up for slow flight. You could learn on it, but it wouldn't take a crash at all.

RE: Why gas instead of electric?
 

Fastsky,

Thanks so much for proving my point. no where in the original post did the terms .40 sized glow trainer vs park flyer come up
you like everyone else made the assumption:eek:

Same with my statement comparing glow to electric. where did anyone read .40 sized glow engine vs. electric parkflyer motor.

Shaggy its exactly these type of responses that make it difficult for newcommers to get "good advice" on these types of sites. Everyone reads something slightly different into the question and answers from that point of view.

Glow and electric are simply different types of power sources period. As with any comparsion it is important to compare items with similar specs.:eek:

Pkh's points that to achieve similar performance with electric power sources is right on however listing it as a disadvantage is subjective to say the least yet typicall for these sites and discussions.

Sometimes its best to ignore the "peanut gallery" (present company included)[X(] aquire the knowledge the old fashioned way by doing the research on your own.

RE: Why gas instead of electric?
 

RIF - Reading Is Fundamental:eek:

RE: Why gas instead of electric?
 

I thought I was pretty fair with the electric power source advantages/disadvantages... The only disadvantage I mentioned was the upfront cost to get similar performance... I don't think anyone can dispute that. Compare the cost of an OS .46 AX nitro engine with a comparable brushless/LiPo setup with a couple of batt packs, and you'll see exactly what I mean... you're talking $300-$400+ for the electric vs. $120 for the nitro! If you have $$$ to burn and you really want a clean and quiet plane... go for it!

RE: Why gas instead of electric?
 

PKH you may be reading my responses but you are not understanding them. ;)

You are asumming that because it costs more it is a disadvantage that is why I made the subjective comment cost may not be a factor for some. :eek:

RE: Why gas instead of electric?
 

Well, most people would consider paying more $$$ to get less in return to be a disadvantage. Hope you don't have to take any economics classes... you'll have a pretty rough time of it! ;)