stevegauth30

Blast from the past for sure.

jeffie8696

Dude, that is exactly what I was thinking, Scary.

Sport_Pilot

Can you advance the timing on a mag engine? I thought you would have to recut a keyway or something. With methanol and especialy methanol/nitro the timing needs to be advanced because the fuel burn is slower.

MTK

Definitely!! I am into the flying and building primarily, but I have been developing powerplants for my specific type of flying I do for many years. Most recently I've concentrated on gasoline engines in the 30 to 60 cc range. Perfect power bands, especially when piped, for what I enjoy the most, aerobatics! I've also discovered that these are truly plug and play nowadays. No need to fiddle with them and maintaining them is super simple. Feeding them doesn't dent my pocket. Life expectancy so far has exceeded my expectations. I have one OS GT33 that has well over 120 hours of actual operation at zero maintenance and squeeky clean inside. I think the OS's (I bought 3 more) will last 1000 hours of operation.

Is glow dead? Nope, and won't be any time soon. Glow has had its issues tho with constant carb fiddling as weather changed and the maintenance headache was constant. I never liked changing bearings every couple hundred runs.

Electric is the new up and comer and offers alot to any guy or gal wanting to fly primarily. I understand the up side of E-power. But have no intention of changing my path of gas engine technology. I can say the exact same thing for glow too. Not returningto glow... no need!

One man's opinion

vertical grimmace

My Feedback: (1)

The thing I like least about electrics, is the "downhill" feel they have with power. As the flight goes on, the power decreases to some extent. Also, I have never been able to get over that nervous feeling about when I am going to run out of battery. Then you hit the Low voltage cut off. With engines, any of them, I know I have full power, as long as it is running. One thing is for sure though, electrics are squeezing the Glow market, as up to probably .40-.60 size, they are pretty viable at this point.

GerKonig

In my personal opinion, also .90 and 1.6 they are viable. I replaced a Z26 for a $50 1.6 motor with a HK controller and use it on 8 or 10 cells in a Giant Stick (at 14 pounds), and it has unlimited vertical, on a 20-6 prop. The GS is a blast now! Of course, it flies around 1/2 throttle or less...

My next application for this combo will be in a Balsa USA DVIII I have almost ready to cover. I might go with a big prop on only 6 cells (if more power is needed I can always go to 8. Most likely I will use 8 because the model might need the weight anyway in the nose. On the other hand I am rebuilding a 30% Citabria, and I am thinking of using a Z62 (because I want smoke).

You never use timer? I use timer for all type of power because I get carried away in the air, and I need to be reminded it is a good idea to land while you have power (any kind of power).

Gerry





Gerry

MTK

VG, indeed true with the earlier E-set-ups. But I don't think that's true any more with the newly developed Throttle Tech device that you plug into your radio. With this gizmo in the system you can run your radio at full and the gizmo moderates the power you get such that start to finish, you power is identical. Of course you have to use a timer with almost any battery operated set-up and land when it tells you to land. You can overdrive the batteries and that's never a good thing with LiPos.

Throttle Tech is all the rage in E-Pattern right now where the guys are driving big props with upwards of 3500 W delivered to the prop. That's 4.5+ HP and can't be touched with anything 1.8 cuin or smaller, be it glow or gas. Pretty much all the top competitors are using it because it gives them the feel we never lost with wet power systems. Throttle Tech was designed, developed and sold by Tech Aero Designs, the same people that developed the IBECs I use in all my gasoline CDI set-ups. It's a really kool product and every E-sport flier should use them in their planes.

Of course, with wet-power regardless of whether glow or gas, energy density of the fuel doesn't vary beginning to end of a tankful.

bogbeagle

How does that throttle-tech gizmo work?

Does it reduce the power available at the start of the flight ... so as to provide a more consistent output?

vertical grimmace

My Feedback: (1)

There is no doubt that electric is beginning to, if not already totally dominating certain areas of competition flying. Mainly in aerobatics. I have watched the evolution of this in control line, which very closely mimics RC Pattern. I can only imagine what it would be like to fly a well trimmed pattern plane with one of those counter rotating prop systems. Also, in CL, they reverse the rotation to keep better line tension. Also the braking effect in down lines seems to be superior with E set ups.
I do not fly aerobatics though, so I prefer engines for many reasons. I think the Heavy metal warbirds need the growl of an engine. I prefer the impression the sound gives for my scale models as well.

lasers200

No electic has won FAI world aerobatics yet.

wjvail

My Feedback: (3)

Dear God... I just had a flash of horror of a day when control line speed, racing and combat will be dominated by electrics. Ahhhh!!!!! I'm certain the day will come - and I'm equally certain I will not be a participant.

jeffie8696

Just to be clear, I LOVE my glow engines but I am not anti electric. I am not "anti" anything, to each his own.

stevegauth30

I also LOVE GLOW, and gas, and electric. I fly anything and love it. I don't discriminate.

vertical grimmace

My Feedback: (1)

I actually have designed an electric CL combat plane. I tried out the power system on a lil' Satan, and it worked great. What I came up with is a more modern design, but I need to finish it.

I have electrics, but for me they have their application. I do not like them for scale and warbirds.

stevegauth30

What I like most about electrics , and I mostly fly smaller ones like 3 and 4 cell types, is that I always have one in the back of the truck and can just pull it out and fly it. Sometimes I'll fly on my lunch break or stuff like that. I do have one bigger one that runs on two four cell packs, but it doesn't fit back there without removing the wing. The one thing I don't much care for when it comes to glow / gas is the whole production of it. All the support equipment and all that stuff unless I'm going to the field for the day. If I'm only going for an hour it's a pain. The one thing that scares me about electric is fire. In my years of flying I've never seen a glow plane burn, or gas for that matter,( not saying it doesn't happen because I know it can) but I've witnessed three different electrics go down in flames. It was kind of cool though to see it fly past trailing smoke and flames.( only because it wasn't mine) I don't knock anyone for what they choose to fly. It's a hobby. Have fun with it.

GerKonig

We had an old member that used to say: airplanes are like women, I love them all...

Gerry

stevegauth30

That's one way to put it.

clpahodges

My Feedback: (3)

At this time, the only glow engines I have are antique engines in my display case. I won't say that I will never fly glow again, but I doubt it. I am really enjoying both electric and gas and I think gas will get even more enjoyable as EFI is introduced and perfected.

Bill Hodges

TimJ

Don't use a Hobby Town to judge what is going on in the industry.

What is really going on is that Glow is transitioning to Gas. The engine manufactures have started to figure out how to get our small glow engines to run on gasoline. Which helps bring the cost of flying engine powered aircraft way down.

vertical grimmace

My Feedback: (1)

That is for sure! Hobby town cannot even come close to being like the LHS's of old. They have no feel or desire to supply what we need. It is all about the bottom line, from some corporate board room. I miss the days when I would go in and BS with the OWNER, of my hobby store, and he would cater to what was going on. Now they are geared toward pushing plastic toys in boxes with electric motors. Reminds me of all of the COX airplanes when I was a kid. Most of which really did not work. Now, I guess at least they do work. My Local Hobby town has fuel, but it is way too expensive for my blood.

earlwb

It really depends on the engine and design. Some magneto designs had a way to move the magnetic coil pickup around some. So you could advance or retard the timing a little. Most engines have it fixed and it can't be moved. But some guys could make a adapter plate and move the pickup unit a little that way. But as you noted one might be able to recut the keyway on the flywheel too.

We used to just convert the gas engines over to glow years ago. We would rip off all the extra junk, make a carb adapter for a glow carb and make a adapter to put a glow plug on the engine. Plus make a prop adapter too. Then with the engine mounted somehow we were all set.

raptureboy

Now that the original question has been completely forgotten, maybe you all need be reminded. There was a time when they thought the automobile was never going to replace the horse. Glow will be around still when you are ready to come back, but why wait to get back in the hobby? You can get a complete glow or electric setup for under $300 lots of good deals here and at swap meets. No matter the power or lack of it's all good if it flies.

flybyjohn

My Feedback: (2)

I have not been able to read every post in this thread but the answer to the first question is no. Glow is not comming back. It has not dissappeared either. As time goes on and more and more plug and play planes are developed along with smaller more efficient gas engines and electric settups are available, glow usage will diminish. In order for glow to come back, there needs to be more newcomers into the hobby choose glow over the gas or electirc option and there is no way that more newcomers to the hobby will prefer glow to the other choices. So this will lead to fewer glow users. This will inevitably lead to less glow fuel and glow plugs and parts being developed which will lead to more expensive support for the glow users, eventually making it hard to stay with glow engines. On top of all this, there is the fact that more and more clubs are having nieghborhoods encroaching on them and some of these residents do not like the sound of our glow engines. This leaves the club the option of moving or restricting glow engines and converting to an electric club.

So this leaves us with the grim truth that yes the hobby is changing and glow will never be as previlent as it used to be, but I don't think I will see the day I cannot run my airplanes on glow fuel.

Sport_Pilot

I have glow engines, models, and radios. Membership has elasped and I cannot afford that nor the time, In debt from the furloughs last year as well,

Sport_Pilot

Actually I did not ask if you think it will come back but is it. I see signs it is, HK has more glow planes and engines for example, It would be nice if someone in the industry would respond. Bax perhaps?

As mentined methanol is cheaper than gas, so if they develop engines that use less oil and no nitro it would be cost effective. Yes it is less efficient than gas, but it also provides more power.