HellcatAce

My Feedback: (6)

Just a rant, and surely I'll get flamed by the politically correct crowd. I am sick of seeing product reviews where there is an option for gas, glow, or electric power and it seems like it's always the boring lekky system that gets installed. Turbines are in their own class and not part of this thread subject.

Yes yes yes, I know many manufacturers send along the powerplant of their choice with a aircraft for review, so save your fingers folks! Yes it's soooooo much cleaner, more quiet, doesn't require any tuning skills, blah blah blah. It helps retain people in the hobby who have no skill or desire to appreciate the art and sound of a finely tuned internal combustion powerplant...phooey!

But it's the wave of the future, it saves flying fields you say! Oh really? How many Lipo fires have you had at your field recently? Now compare that to glow power and gas power crash fires. Go ahead, I'll wait...

A recent Lipo fire cost a member of our club several thousand dollars (thankfully they had insurance to cover the costs) in repairs to the adjoining property fence line. Nobody can remember the last time a glow or gas powered plane caused a fire, but there have been a couple of Lipo fires both before and since that little expensive crash.

How about those flimsy foil wrappings they use on LiPo batteries? Seems like they are designed to fail. At least the RC car racing side has wised up and made it industry standard to put those little bombs in hard cases to prevent rupture and fire in the event of a hard hit. But us aviators seem compelled to use dangerous, poorly protected packs in the effort to save weight.

Our hobby is being dumbed down and pushed into thinking that electric power is the ONLY way to go. I say RUBBISH! More engines and airplane noise are needed!

I'm not here too often, so I'll check back in a week or so and read the comments. Get your flame throwers filled up and lit...I'm waitng for ya!!!!

init4fun

Gee , , And I never knew there was a Caustic , California . Learn something new here every day , , yep ...

(And yes , I DO realize it's "Castaic" and not Caustic , but given the nature of the post , , , , , , well)

beepee

I'm with you, Ace. Its gassers for me.

Bedford

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

I've reviewed the H-9 Super Cub with a G26, a Red Aero Corvus with a GP-61, the Hangar 9 Christen Eagle II with a Saito 125 in the last couple months.

topspin

I put a card in the spokes.

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

I'll second that

Too bad this 80" 30 cc bird is in its 'inventory reduction' phase

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

Here you go if you don't want to wait for the next Fly RC for the pics

Edit: The Eagle is already published here...

hookedonrc

Sorry, I am pretty sure you wanted to stir things up, but all I can do is laugh. Maybe it is how you put it, but it brought a big smile to me. I do know what you are saying and even agree with a lot of it as well. It is the same way when I see that they now make a charging "vault" to protect against fires. If you need a vault, maybe you ought to reconsider what you are using for power.

thailazer

I tried going electric with helicopters and one plane, but in just two months I had spent more on puffy batteries than I spent on fuel in an entire year. Big (and expensive) learning curve on Lipo batteries in my experience. Only small Lipos for phones and cameras in my house.

chuckk2

Discontinued Hangar 9 P47 Thunderbolt 65" span Conversion to Electric power.
E Flite 52 Motor 1650W
12x8x3 Master Airscrew prop
6 cell 5000mah battery
Spectrum A6180 Servos
A7000 retract servo
80 or 90 A ESC (which ever fits better)
Receiver is undecided

The 52 is available,and has enough power to easily handle a 10-11 lb model
It's higher KV rating than the 60 helps with prop sizing and ground clearance.
The heart of the conversion involves use of a "motor box" accessory intended for another of the Hanger 9 P-47s.

scale only 4 me

My Feedback: (158)

Dang Andy those files are huge

OP,
EP is here to stay, Mags print what people buying the mags are interested in,, that's how it works,,

But look on the bright side.. you guys that are still hanging onto glow can pick up motors for practically free.

Oooh, and Lipo fires are virtually a thing of the past, sure it can still happen, caution must always be taken,, but charger technology and user education has made them much much safer in recent years.

good luck

swify

I have a hard time getting excited about electric powered planes. They seem kind of boring in my opinion.

topspin

One of the problems we face at our flying site is noise. We have a 92 dba limit and a lot of IC powered planes top that. Funny thing is that there are several electrics at the field that can exceed the noise limit also. It's a screwed up world when your flying field is in the middle of nowhere with a landfill on one side and a few poor squatters in trailers half a mile away who complain about the noise. Except whe they are cutting wood with chain saws, then it's OK. Been thinking about using Poulan engines and just tell them I'm cutting wood.

lopflyers

My Feedback: (12)

Funny to say the least.
For any taste there is a flavor, if you want to fly glow or gas please do so, the market is shifting to electrics so the majority of reviews and ads are tailor to the majority.
Dont let the masses spoil your fun flipping props, go ahead and be happy.

Super Kupfer

I agree with ACE.

Personally I would like to see reviews with both electric/nitro/gas manufacturing power recommendations, they shouldnt single it out.

eddieC

My Feedback: (2)

I'm with the OP!
As for the 'reduction' in fires, the chemistry is still the most dangerous at the flying field IMO. One off-field crash, and you're calling the fire department to put out a brush fire, and maybe a news crew shows up. Not worth it.

Another factor is the production of 'electric-only' planes, the ones that aren't built sturdy enough to handle a gas or glow motor. The only thing good in that respect is, none of them will still be around like my many 20+ yr-old glow planes. They won't be fondly spoken of in years hence either, like many classic glow planes.

flycatch

My Feedback: (26)

The market controls our hobby and electrics are taking the stage. I tried electrics in helicopters and eventually switched back to glow. I witnessed a club of thirty all go electric and within a year the club was no more.

hookedonrc

I am lucky to live outside of town and the street in front of my house makes a perfect runway. The electrics I fly are only about the size of a 40 aircraft. I do have glow and gas, but those I have to fly at our club field. Lipo fires are of concern, but I have never seen one catch fire. Yes, I have online like youtube, but on video only. If you are worried about fires, it is from a jet going in.. We had to call the fire department out to our field when one crashed, caught fire, then spread to the dry grass. My two biggest issues with the electrics I fly are flight time and sound.....well lack of it really.

GerKonig

Just read the original message, what a load of crap!

Gerry

topspin

I hear you eddie but every hobby has it's golden age. The golden age of RC probably ended in the late 1980's with the advances in micro electronics. I remember when RC hobbyists built not only their planes from scratch but also their own transmitters, receivers, and servos which were basically electromanetic solenoids with two positions. We are now relegated to the toy segment of the industry and most RC hobbyists just buy ready to fly stuff.

thrawn150

Nothing PC about it. I fly EP for lots of reasons, mostly because I do not want to fiddle with engines. I do not care what powers a plane as long it flies well and the pilot is happy awesome. As far as lipo fire, I have been flying balsa EP planes since 07 and have never ever seen a fire at the field. Never liked the whole EP vs glow vs gas thing, if what you fly makes you happy again awesome.

KnifeEdge51

I'll side with the OP to an extent. I fly mainly electric right now, because they're quiet, and I fly stuff small enough that I can hit a local park without causing an uproar. Way back when, the first plane I purchased was a US Aircore Trainer 40 at about 9-10 years old. I got as far as building the universal power tray, and then we moved to AZ. I've never even seen the leftover parts since then, let alone the box they're in. It's at my folks' garage somewhere, but I've never seen it. I later got involved with electrics at about 14-15 years old, and those are really what got me started in the hobby, because I was too young to drive, and my father wasn't able to drive me all over town to go to a club.

Now that I'm older, I've been hit pretty bad by the diesel and 1/2A glow bug. I'm not a member of a club yet, and can't run any of the engines at the apartment I live at, but my folks' place is only a few miles away, and I'm sure we'd be fine there, for the most part. And now that I'm definitely old enough to drive, hehe, joining a club is starting to look like a viable option for me to get into IC engines, which have always intrigued me.

So while I agree that the electric stuff is taking over more than I'd like, it does have it's place. But more reviews of engines and engine powered craft would be welcomed, in my opinion.

HellcatAce

My Feedback: (6)

"What a load of crap"

Which part? I'd really like to have your opinion. Crap is in the eye of the beholder...

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

Some of them I agree with you....then there are these

airraptor

My Feedback: (66)

bottom line is people selling these elctric models are making a ton more money over the Gas/glow planes and people are lazy now days. much easier to throw in a new battery pack and go. no tuning, no cleaning up the oil, no plugs to change and so on. its a win win for the LAZY and the ones making a profit off them.

Sure I am lazy also as I have some elctrics but most are glow and GAS.

TBM lost major point with me when they started selling FPV and FOAM planes.