flycatch

My Feedback: (26)

Can someone explain why you would do this. The intent of the electric revolution was to get away from glow fuel was it not.

Twin_Flyer

My Feedback: (4)

Simple,
IMO, not everyone wants to fly electric and there are a lot of nice, new planes that can be converted to glow.

Bill S.

phatboy

I can take a glow plane to the field with a gallon of fuel and fly all day. I have four, count em, FOUR batteries for my electric heli, and at most I can fly for 45 mins before all four are dead as a hammer. It takes my 4 port charger approximatly 45 mins to recharge them.

So lets see.

4 batteries at $35 bux each = $140 in batteries = 45 mins flight time per charge session with 45 mins down time per charge session

OR

1 gallon of fuel at $20 bux each = $20 in fuel = 12-15 mins flight time per fill up, a whole days worth of fill ups in one gallon with 5 mins down time to fill up, get a drink, and pee. Yeah I will take glow anyday!

Not to mention my electric plane that was supposed to be a 3d plane, wasn't, after my conversion it will be much better for 3d flight, and I wont have to buy $500 in batteries to fly all day, just $20 in fuel, and maybe a glow plug, and a coke.

Dont get me wrong, electric has its place, but those of us doing the conversions either have planes, or want planes that are electric. We just want them to squirt fuel instead.

ckreef

+ 1 on that.

I fly a few electrics but once I went glow I was hooked and all my new, bigger models will be glow. I do have an electric stick that I was never happy with the motor/battery combination. Rather then buy a new electric motor and a bunch of new large batteries I can just buy a glow motor, gas tank, and 1 Rx battery for about 1/2 the price.

I also Have another electric plane I'm eyeing up for conversion. It is the best version I have seen of this plane but unfortunatly only comes as electric. As soon as I can scrap up some more cash I will dive head first into the conversion.

rcphotog

I think that it's safe to say that most of us leave politics out of our hobbie and our intent is not to make a "statement" with our models, but to simply have fun and enjoy the camaraderie of other enthusiasts.
The word "revolution" has no place in my dictum.
Fly want you want and what makes you happy and we'll do the same.
Ken.

phatboy

Well said!

Patxipt

One more thing: nowadays is increasingly difficult to find planes for classes lower than a .46. You either have to build or design one yourself.

On the other hand, there's plenty of readily available electrics equivalent to .049, .10 or .25 displacements.

With proper reinforcement in key areas, namely firewall, we, oily hands, have opened up an area that's has been put aside these past years, that of low displacement glow powered airplanes. [8D]

Twin_Flyer

My Feedback: (4)

Very true!

I had to rebuild the engines on my OV-10 Bronco and I like to fly engines after the initial break in on a stand.

However, I am not going to fly them in a twin till im sure they are ready!

Not many .25 size plane out there so a conversion should do nicely to log some time on the engine before they go back in the Bronco.

Bill S.

cutaway

I find the trash cans full of trivially repairable electric planes their previous owners had no clue how to fix.

pencon

Bottom line for many of us is we like to tinker with engines and love the smell of glow fuel in the morning . Also electrics have very little character . I have an electric powered Stryker and some edfs but they aren't as fun to tinker with as glow engines.I like to do things like engine mods , tune pipe tuning ,changing port timing, making mousse can mufflers etc . With an electric you just plug it in and you're done wizzzzzzzzzzzz . Yaaaawwwwn

mikeh251

If you have to ask... ... ...

FuzzyDice

My Feedback: (6)

I love the smell of nitro and castor on a cool crisp morning ! Ahhh the blue skys with my oily vapor trails !!

Twin_Flyer

My Feedback: (4)

Well said!

Bill

52larry52

My Feedback: (1)

I am about to join the conversion to glow "counter revolution"!! Ditto to all the above reasons for glow conversion plus the biggie no one has touched....FIRE HAZZARD!!!!!!! I am primarly a larger airplane glow flyer, 70" to 110" w.s. with .46 to 1.20 2 and 4 stroke glow power, however I have tried 8 or so electric planes with mostly disappointing results. Yes, they have all been brushed motors with NiCad or NiMh batteries, no LIPOs. I know that sooner or later a battery would be forgoten and left on the charger too long and burn the house down. Not gonna happen here, NO LIPOs! Never!! The couple of electrics in my hanger that do fly well, Hobby Zone Super Cub, and Kyosho Stratus Sports sailplane will remain as NiMh electrics but they both need new batteries at $60 for the pair. Thats the cost of 3 gallons of glow fuel. How far could I fly these two on 3 gallons of glow fuel?? Yeah, electric is OK for some applications and some people but not the end all answer. I just bought an O.S. 15LA that will go into either my World Models 48" Cub (great looking but will barely get off the ground), or my Wattage PT-19 (also great looking but would only fly for about 2 mins. before falling like a stone with no engine power left). I'll see which one looks like the best match when the engine arrives.

airraptor

My Feedback: (66)

LOL electric revolution. were you guys here to put glow out of the hobby or something? once all of guys dies of then it might be all electric by then. I like electric also for some applications as the electric motors can out perform our glow engines but they can only do that for 1-5 mins at best. with electric you are always thinking in your head i better throttle back some to get a longer flight. "The intent of the electric revolution" lol i am still laughing at that one.

scale dail

My Feedback: (8)

I've never seen glow fuel do this-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EseOh...e_gdata_player

52larry52

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks scale dail, "I rest my case".............. 52larry52

HellcatAce

My Feedback: (6)

Second on that one. A local club just lost it's field quite possibly FOREVER thanks to a LiPo fire and somebody looking for an excuse to shut it down.

optech

My Feedback: (9)

I love my electrics and have been on the electric bandwagon since before it was cool to fly electric. There is an electric only field just a hop and skip away from my house. But I also love tinkering with engines so I will always have both types of planes and helicopters in my hanger. There is no denying the convienience of popping in a battery and having a flight then simply setting it aside. No mess, no goop, no loose covering, no fuel proofing, yada, yada.....

However, and this is the biggest reason for me to convert to glow is that some planes just don't look and feel right whizzing by with no sound. Like a Waco biplane on a lazy Sunday. But put a four stroke in it and all just seems right again. Or a snarling warbird doing a low pass on the deck. Yeah its "okay" with electric but there is nothing like the sound and fury of an internal combustion engine wailing away at wide open throttle making air and fuel into fire.

And like the others have said. The availability of new planes. Small glows are just not being made which is pretty sad. It was the availability of small 1/2a engines that catapulted this hobby to the next level. In the early 50's getting into model airplanes was daunting task with large engines and large planes. Most young men just simply could not afford to purchase, build, and transport a large model. But as soon as the first 1/2A engines and planes became available they were an instant success. It's sad that this facet of our hobby is now largely forgotten.

Anyway...... have fun,
Mike

jetdeck

hey guys, have a su-35 twin edf with 2 70mm fans, took out all the junk, servos fans and motors escs, want to convert to glow, engine in front, maybe a supretiger 90, any suggestions, ideas, oh it is a hk jet, I know bad boy for getting there junk, that's why I strpped it of the junk that was installed, the airframe is pretty good though, let me know what you come up with as far as recommendations, thanks guys

Warjet

My Feedback: (327)

Left the hobby about 10 years ago, finally got to retire and have been resurrecting my enthusiasm the last few months. Despite having about 50 glow engines and 60 or so kits / arfs in storage, went down to the local Hobby People and asked questions about going electric. After learning about motors, esc, batteries, charger, etc to fly a 46 - 61 size plane, decided the $300 - $400 to convert was just not going to work. I know electrics have gained significant popularity with the technology and loss of large flying fields, but fuel is $12 - $15 / gallon, I have thousands of $$ invested and 3 fields / clubs close by, so it looks like "they're going to have to pry my glow fuel pump from my cold, dead hands"!

exocet-RCU

My Feedback: (1)

I am a hybrid guy, actually. I have mostly glow engines and I fly majority .010, .020, .049 right now. I have bigger motors but have been on a 'small' plane kick for awhile. What I do, however, is get a 360 mah 2S Lipo battery and a micro-sized regulator and use that as my flight pack. It is lighter than NiCDs and not as fussy as NiMHs. and I can fly my little planes all day on one charge. Now, I do think there are applications for electric motor power. For instance, I have a twin turbo prop plane that would sound 'wrong' with piston engines. So electric motors make more sense there.

Tim

[email protected]

I started out with glow engines 30 some years ago and I 'love em', Batteries are nice and clean but as a few people have said you need 4 batteries at least to do any amount of flying time and even then your busy running back and forth to put it on the charger. I have a couple of electrics and I had to spend over a $100.00 to get 4 batteries for just the one FMS Spitfire I have. I live about an hour away from the flying field and I want to spend all day there so the batteries do not work for me very well. Thank you, but I will stay with the Glow Engines!!