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Anyone think in 5 years no more nitro? All gas?

Im sure there will be lots more gas engines and in smaller sizes, but i bet there will still be lots of glow motors around. I know i will still be flying them if fuel doesnt get to expensive.

Probably not in 5 years. If they could make small, .40 size gas motors that are as lightweight and have as much power as a comparable nitro motor, and sell them at the same price or close to it, then yes. Maybe it will happen someday. But I doubt it will happen in 5 years. A nitro motor has a lot less parts than a gas motor.

Not true. a Weed eater motor or gas has the same amount.
(2 stroke vs 2 stroke )


A 2 stroke vs 4 stroke.....4 stroke has more.

You still have a stator and a wire going to a spark plug.

Ok one more peice..lol

you Awax people..lol

well just look at the new sato gas and os gas engines
the aserys is where the money will be there all electric ign
all this will do is weed out the weak companys that cant cope with the change

Britt,

It's even more than that because a magneto is quite heavy, so a gas engine is going to have a crank pickup, an ignition box, a dedicated ignition switch, and it's own battery pack because they can't be shared with the RX pack without interference issues.

The 40 size glow engines aren't going to be replaced by small gas engines, rather they are already being replaced by electric motors.

At this point anything 46 size and smaller can pretty much be electric with minimal cost and weight over a glow engine, and anything 1.60 and bigger can be gas powered now that the DLE-30 is out and doing well.

Everything in the middle .60/.90/.120 can be glow, electric, or gas, but the little saito gas engines are so expensive that I think many people would just rather do glow or electric depending on if they want the noise/mess or not.

Here is an example:

Lets say I was building a 1.20 size Decathlon (http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products/De ... ID=SEA2125)

I could get an OS 1.20ax for $280, it would weigh 31oz and would fly the airplane well.
I could get a Saito 125 which would probably fly the airplane almost as well as the OS for $390 and it would weigh 25oz.
I could get a Zenoah 20cc for $339 which would probably be close in power to the saito 125 and would be pretty heavy at 42oz
I could get a saito 125 GAS for $530 which is nice and light at 31oz, but probably not enough engine to fly the airplane well.
I could get a saito 180 GAS for $640 which would probably fly the airplane very well at around 35oz.
I could get a Scorpion S-4025-10 ($105 12.5oz), ICE 100 ($120 3oz), TP prolite 6s 5000 ($220 25oz) and it would fly the tar out of the airplane (180 watts/lb) at $445 and 39.5 oz.
I could get a Scorpion S-4025-10 ($105 12.5oz), ICE 100 ($120 3oz), HK Nano 6s 5000 ($90 27oz) and it would fly the tar out of the airplane (180 watts/lb) at $315 and 41.5 oz.

So what does this all mean?

It means that electric is the cheapest (as long as you already have the charging gear) and simplest (no servos, plumbing, linkage), but you loose out on the flight times and it really doesn't sound as cool.
2 stroke gas Looks like it is the second cheapest but it's heavy for the power. Flight times would be great.
Glow is expensive due to the cost of engines and fuel, but performs very well and has good flight times, but then again they can be a pain to deal with.
4 stroke gas is very expensive. You could buy a lot of glow fuel or batteries for what they want for one of those.

The great thing is that there are so many options right now. There really is something for everybody in all sizes these days.

schu

It has come to my attention that some people felt that this was a glow vs electric debate. I really don't mean it to be so, my point was just that we have so many options now in the mid size airplanes, and I think that the electrics are slowly taking over the small size airplanes and the gas taking over the large.

The reason why I took the time to list out prices is to point out that electric power plants have come down in cost quite a bit, the 4 stroke glow engines have gotten more expensive, and the 4 stroke gas engines are really expensive. This doesn't mean that any solution is better than another, it just means the things are different than they where 2 years ago.

As far as electrics being more convenient, that is a two edge sword. At the flying field they are more convenient because you don't need as much support gear or cleanup, but picking the right gear can be very complex. When I said that electric is the simplest, I should have qualified that will the simplest to install and maintain, but certainly not the simplest to get a good setup, and absolutely not the safest. Last I checked it was really hard to burn down your house with a glow engine.

When I do the electric clinic we will spend some time on the safety part, because I think that electrics are far more dangerous than glow engines. Nobody is tempted to start a glow plane in their house, but yet the electric has much more chance of fire, doesn't stall out, and develops it's torque much faster and with much less warning.

schu