IC or Electric

wow
engines that work, thats unusual.

mind you electric fire up first time every time.

*l*ctr*c Yeah fire up every time - saw some poor sod at the field the other day turn on Tx - forgot to set throttle servo to idle - result a big ouch. At least with nitro you can hear the bloody things going. Yeah - I know, as some one said the other day, you can install a sound system and have the authentic sound of a Merlin with an electric motor. Provided of course you're ready to mortgage the house to pay for it!

My other objection (yeah - it is one of many) is that if you have been building and flying for as long as I have you have a collection of IC motors going back to when we were still snot nosed little boys. I still have my original Frog 500 and ED 2.46 Racers. Electric flyers brag about the convenience and smoothness and anything else that they can bullshit about. They fail to mention how dangerous bloody LiPos are or how much it costs to set up the special chargers, ESCs and all the other paraphernalia it takes to go electric. I concede that electric is here to stay and it might be the way to go for new entrants into the hobby but come on fellas electric has it's own set of problems and limitations so lets give each other a fair go!

he he he

i dont care what people fly ic electric, jets,gliders.

i fly electric cos of noise problems.

I think I am old enough to join this debate (76 yrs young). I have gone through the IC part of the hobby, some 20 yrs, 1970 to 1990 s and as far as I am concerned you can stuff the filthy things. Models lathered in fuel, covering peeling off, no matter how much fuel proofer has be applied, drips of fuel all over the boot of the car, drips of fuel under the storage area. Done all that, been there, and got the filthy dirty tee shirt.

I fly 6 to 10 lb aerobatic models, all electric, and when I have finished, in the car with the models, no mess!!!

It has not been mentioned about the man with his messy engine trying to start it, finally getting it started, having to put its nose up on full bore, engine stops, so the whole silly ritual has to start all over again,RIGHT NEXT TO ME. Fuel all over the pit area, and over anyone near.

Give me electric everytime, clean, quiet, and flying site friendly .

How many flying sites have been lost because of noise, dozens and dozens, but not one of them due to electric flyers.

My models will keep up with a comparable size I/C engine, and in some cases beat the I/C on speed

Yes electric is dangerous , so is crossing the road, so that argument doesnt wash.

My advise in this debate is dont knock it till you have tried it

Garry

i didn't mean to start a fight.
was only mucking about.

Fight Tony???

You didnt start a fight, just a friendly debate between adults. We dont fight on here, we leave that to other forums:)

Garry

Not blaming you Tony or even our '76 years young' electric defender but I am trying to get a point across. Gary mentions a number of problems associated with IC engines - some what biased - but so am I - I've seen blokes with the problems Gary mentions but all I can say in reply to that is - they need to STOP BUGGERISING AROUND with the needle valve and learn to cleanup after themselves. Fuel soaking can be a problem but perhaps their building techniques need an overhaul as well. They might also need to wake up that castor oil is superceded and synthetic oils are a lot more friendly to both the motor and the model.

Like I said electric power has it's own set of problems and I've seen electric models catch fire, LiPos explode and models with hopelessly inadequately powered motors. I've seen blokes tearing there hair out because they can't the ESCs or the batteries or what ever set up properly. I've seen models that have a whole 5 minutes flying time before they run out of puff and then a big rush to recharge the battery packs. Like I said - once again - we each have our own problems.

My other gripe is with the costs associated with setting up to convert to electric power. I started building and flying in 1952 - yep - I am an old fart - and I have a collection of over 85 model engines of various vintages. Now I'm retired and my only income is a military pension. To convert to electric would cost me an arm and a bloody leg so why should I subject myself to the learning curve to understand the electrics plus the cost of the batteries, the chargers and other stuff. All for a model that runs out of puff in five or ten minutes.

Speed and aerobatics is not a factor in my book and although I have a couple of war birds that fly fast enough to look authentic I'm at that stage in life where my eyesight and reaction time is better suited to big old vintage models that chug around at a slow and leisurely pace.

The other factor for me is I live on the outskirts of Hobart and I have a mate with a couple of hundred acre rural property - no noise complaint problems to worry about and Australia is a big, big country.

As I say both IC and electric has it's own set of problems - lets give each other a fair go and concede that there are pluses and minuses on both sides of the equation. Over to you Gary.

Some very valid points Grumps. Seems as if you started this mad game about the same time as i did.

Yes i must agree about the cost of setting up on electric, but of course if you shop round, it need not be as dear as first thought. Also as it is my one hobby which gets me in the fresh air with peeps with the same interest as me, I feel justifies the outlay. It does not of course have to be done all at once, but over a period.

You however have one great advantage , and that is SPACE, something that is in very short supply over here, and sites are being lost on a weekly basis through the antics of a lot of I/C flyers, and it will only get worse

We now have many clubs that will only allow electric models, and complaints are coming in all the time

I will agree that there are plus and minus on both counts and it is sometimes a matter of individual choice of which way to go. It wouldnt do for us all to think the same way

Garry

I enjoy both IC and Electric .Electric has something missing,Ic is messy love it all.

I agree with you Eric that 2 strokes sound like a sowing machine on pep pills but some of the 4 strokes - especially the multi cylinder jobs sound bloody marvelous - admittedly not a Merlin in full song but still an improvement on relatively silent Spitfires, Hurricanes and Mustangs. As for the silence of electrics I have to agree with one of your previous observations - a EDF at full song sounds like the invasion of the banshees. Then of course we have the ultimate noise machine - we have 3 blokes here that fly turbines - 2 fixed wing jets and a helicopter - no prize for guessing which is the loudest.

I acknowledge the concerns about noise - it is beginning to be a problem even here in this big wide country - some of the sites near mainland cities have been closed down because of noise complaints. Then again I remember being chased off the local school oval for that very reason when I was about 12 years old - back then it was all control line 2 strokes, combat wings had just appeared, all fuel was your own secret brew - and - muffflers?? - what were they???

You should have stopped moaning then!!