Waco

My Feedback: (265)

With Gas engines getting smaller and lighter and the price of glow fuel getting higher and higher, what is the future for the glow industry? DLE is coming out with a gas 20cc engine that weighs close to the saito 125 and is more power than the 125 so they say, If this is true I will be tempted to go to gas.

shaggy48

I say good. Glow fuel is too darn expensive. Can't wait toll I can get a 60 size gas engine. The higher cost of the engine is a wash since you save it back in fuel. If I could go gas now. I would. But they are still too big and heavy.

coriolan

You can get a pre-1948 engine or convert a small Glow to ignition.

Phoenixangel

Magnum and O.S both are big companies and producing small alternative fuel engines.

http://www.hobbypeople.net/gallery/210550.asp <-gasoline ..the numbers they claim are glowish in power,rpm etc..

http://www.keimod.com/shop/product_i...7a9a36be252fc4

O.S. bio ethanol 55ax

they also have a .75 for BE application if you search for it http://www.keimod.com/shop/product_i...roducts_id=608

Broken Wings

My Feedback: (20)

Even at $25 a gallon, glow fuel is still cheaper than "Greens Fees" "Bait and Tackle" or any number of other hobbies that I've been involved in. I can't burn a gallon of fuel in one sitting...

It's a GREAT HOBBY! whatever you like to power your models with.

noveldoc

My Feedback: (2)

Magnum product looks interesting and price ain't bad. What does it burn, gas and oil?

What the heck is bioethanol?

Tom

Phoenixangel

The magnum burns gas and oil like other 2 strokes, although I am sure the oil is a high rpm formula specific for these engines.[edit] I can not find a good description of oil for it....

Bio ethanol is just a fancy name for pure ethyl or grain alcohol, the same form of alcohol found in drinks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwORv...layer_embedded

nonstoprc

My Feedback: (90)

The future is electric.

proptop

My Feedback: (8)

Glow will be around for however long you / we want it to be...

I intend to fly my glow engines until I can't physically do it any more...I'm 50 now and hope to be doing it for a long time to come...

I also have a bunch of electric powered airplanes, and a few r/c cars...they're great...and so are my gassers...the diversity of power plants available is fantastic...we never had it better...the good ole days are right now..."it's all good" as they say.

I don't think it's just my opinion...judging by the guys who have been hanging around in this forum...the glow engine is far from going the way of the Dodo...

gkamysz

My Feedback: (19)

Glow will be around for a while. It's possible that electric will take over the smaller glow models and gas the larger ones. But having flown .40 size airplanes with spark ignition, it's fairly heavy and we need better carbs for engines that small.

nonstoprc

My Feedback: (90)

Actually electric can power 120-140 sized planes, quite adequately.

proptop

My Feedback: (8)

Yeah...you're right...and even larger...
So you don't like glow engines, huh?

We ARE in the "Glow Engines" forum ya know

There is an entire section of RCU dedicated to E powered aircraft...
How much did your motor, ESC, and a couple of battery packs cost you to fly your 1.20 - 1.40 size bird?

I've been flying w/ E power for about 10 years...but still love the sounds and smells of glow power.

Glow engines have been getting less expensive, and generally speaking, their quality is good. I think they'll be around for a few more generations at least. The three or four clubs in my immediate area are predominately glow, with gassers and electrics not far behind.

coriolan

And you can buy lot of Glow fuel for the price of the battery pack needed to achieve thatAnd proptop is rigth this is a fuel forum. I use electric for the small stuff for convenience but above a certain size it just doesnt make sense to use E-power unless you have lot of money to burn and enjoy spending hours charging batteries. A wet power model is fuel-and-go Gasoline or Glow, of course it require a bit more knowledge than just flip a switch but the reward is real. Even seen a nice scale job flying with only the prop noise? its like being in a two dimension world.

proptop

My Feedback: (8)

You got that right...even though batteries have gotten cheaper.

Last year, we did a club buy and got S&W fuel for less than 10 bucks a gallon, in 55 gal drums...15% nitro / 18% oil (synth / castor blend )

MetallicaJunkie

[:'(][:'(][:'(][:'(][:'(][:'(][:'(][:'(][:'(]

Sport_Pilot

You can buy methanol for about 3 bucks a gallon, maybe less.  Its the nitro that's expensive.  So if the price is expensive then use low or no nitro fuel.  If the price of low or no nitro fuel is expensive then mix your own.  You can buy oil for about $20-$25 per gallon so 0% nitro fuel would be about $6.  I considered buying a Fox or Magnum .50 sized gas engine, but the ignition modules are just too large for this size model.  The performance while good, is not good enough.

EscapeFlyer

My Feedback: (1)

Not as long as I can do anything about it!!!!

Brian

Masonhornet

God I hope not...

Nikolas K

I hope not electric. I do not like flying electric vacuum cleaners. I prefer the good old internal combustion engine powering flying machines.
Anyway, the matter with small engines is also practical. You cannot have enough power with low weight when using a gasoline engine in sizes less than .40/.48 cubic inches. The thing there is to go glow, where the physical properties of methanol and nitromethane make an engine for this size superpowerfull. And I believe that for this reason the glow engine will survive well into the future.

fiery

My Feedback: (2)

Electric Power? Bah. Humbug. Don't / won't own one.

Mis-employed hair dryer motors leave me cold.

To slime is fine.

mike109

G'day

I refuse to fly something that reminds me of mowing the grass.

My four stroke glow engines are powerful enough, light enough and sound nice. Why would I want to get a petrol (gas) engine. And so long as I don't use great gobs of nitro, the fuel is not too expensive.

So ... I think there are enough people like me to keep glow engines going for quite some time yet.

Now when they come out with a small nuclear motor or an electric power system which uses a battery that can be charged by filling it with a liquid, I'll have a look at it.

As for the current electric technology - it is getting better and is fine for powered gliders but if you want to have N flights in an afternoon, you need N batteries and they just aren't cheap or reliable and long lasting enough yet for me.

Then again, there is always diesel too.

bogbeagle

Speaking for myself, I buy my methanol from a chap who supplies bio-fuels. In small quantities (20litres), it costs 60 pence per litre. (£2.70-a-gallon)

No nitro; I use 2% petrol as an ignition improver

Oil mix is 12% synth, re-circulated to the induction side of the engine. This increases the effective oil content and keeps the model clean.


All of this provides a reasonably economical mix for use with glow engines - at about £6-a-gallon. Straight petrol is about £5.50 per gallon ... oil additives will increase that price, of course.




Unless you are running a two-stroke petrol engine, which has needle rollers at both little end and big end, you will likely still be adding quite a bit of oil to your fuel. And it's the oil that is the expensive component in fuels.



In the last 12 months, I have flown my models for just 26 hours. Any cost saving, attributable to petrol, would be marginal for me.

budchugger

My Feedback: (1)

Give me the gas engines anytime, they are very reliable and a lot cheaper to operate than glow or electric.

pe reivers

small glow engines will disappear in favour of electrics, or become very expensive due to diminishing markets. Medium size glow/gas/electric. Large engines glow(specials) or gas. Electrics are limited by the safe Voltage (50V) limit, so power can only increase if current increases. Right now, the largest motors are about 9 kW, not for the faint of heart! These babies need 200+ Amps to unfold their power.

jc654

Best argument for glow power ever....


"I carefully avoided the idea of using an electric motor for the power plant,
since we feel that slot car motors powered by wet cell car batteries
represent the latest technology here, and, in any case, "the 'real planes'
don't use 'em."

electric "expert' (name withheld to protect the ignorant)