thinking about getting into glow

Pilot-294

Senior Member
since i have moved to montana, i have had a lot of life changes. a new lifestyle, a new job, new people, lots of new wind, but one thing that hasn't changed is my lust for aircraft and the passion i have for anything that can overcome gravity. in my R/C journey i have gone from an unsuccessful nitro trainer, to a fully electric fleet of micros and one tried and truly amazing corsair. i wouldn't have traded the way i learned the hobby for anything and the folks here on flitetest have been wonderful and more than informative. and due to the fact that i have a strong belief that this is a truly wonderful and honest group of people i find myself turning to you all again for my questions and ask for more wisdom and hard learned facts.

i am debating attempting to expand my flight envelope yet again into the world of nitro powered planes.

here is what i want;

im not looking for a trainer "type" plane. they aren't appealing to the eye and i feel like i could outgrow it too quickly.

i need something to handle wind well. as i know flying in the wind is an acquired skill as much as it relies on what your plane can handle the area i live in is extremely windy, which limits my flying quite a bit. an average day here is a 15 mph wind.

im not sure if i want sport or scale.

im not sure on the size.

and my price range for the plane, equipment, and tools is around 600 dollars and hopefully i can get into something for around that but the cheaper the better for a starter.

gotto be at least a 4ch a 5 or 6ch is fine too.

my time frame for this is gonna be a couple months before i get anything but hopefully i can start soon.

thanks for the help guys (and gals? lol)
 

Ak Flyer

Fly the wings off
Mentor
I know you said you don't want a trainer type, but that's a lot to take on at once. Going big, balsa and nitro at once can be a steep learning curve. I recommend the sig Kadet LT40. It's available in an ARF or kit and you can get it with the engine. It's probably the most complete kit you can get (ARF as well). I know it's a trainer, but it's a really really good plane. My brother and his buddy still fly theirs all the time and they both have really big sport planes and his buddy is into the 100" 100cc gas hardcore 3D. He still flies his trainer. It actually gets more time because when it's too windy or anything to fly their big expensive planes they bring out the trainers. The Sig Kadet LT40 is world renowned as the greatest trainer ever and many many clubs swear by it as the trainer of choice. I have logs several flights on my brothers Kadet and it flies upside down, loops, rolls etc with ease. It's a great plane to go out and have fun with. It would also make a great platform for FPV due to it's docile nature and smooth handling. It's great for bomb drops and things like that too. Oh, and it's durable and easy to repair. My brother's has taken a beating and keeps on ticking.

If you aren't into the Kadet I highly recommend taking a look at the rest of their line. The Rascal is a great plane, the Fourstar is an awesome plane (I have a 60 size fourstar). The fourstar is definitely not a starter plane though, you better have a good grip on the basics before moving up to something like that.

http://www.sigmfg.com/cgi-bin/dpsmart.exe/MainMenuFV5.html?E+Sig

yy1SIGRC67ARFNew.jpg
 

Nonamerc

Arman
Or make your own, even more fun!

If I see what you want the AXN would be perfect, but its electricall and you want glow.
 

lobstermash

Propaganda machine
Mentor
P294, I notice you don't have a cub in your hanger... I know nothing about glow, but the cub seems like a great subject. The best thing about them is they fly like a trainer and they don't look like one.
 

Ak Flyer

Fly the wings off
Mentor
or a Bixler, wait that's electric too........

....a sky surfer....damn...electric...

.............maybe a nutball.......wait......

lol just kidding.

It's a bit more involved scratch building balsa, especially with nitro. Unless you have a lot of experience it's best to start with some good plans or a kit.

I highly recommend getting an ARF first and finding out if you are into all that before trying to kit build one. I found a couple good deals on used balsa planes and got into nitro that way. Saved me hundreds and if I didn't like it or crashed it I could always get my money back by selling off the electrical components.
 

Ak Flyer

Fly the wings off
Mentor
P294, I notice you don't have a cub in your hanger... I know nothing about glow, but the cub seems like a great subject. The best thing about them is they fly like a trainer and they don't look like one.

Cubs are great fun. They aren't the best in the wind, much like a trainer they have a large wing and light loading so they get blown around more, but I fly my big cub in wind and it does well once you are accustomed to it. Here's a video I made last year of my 76.5" balsa cub when I was still getting used to it. It's extremely aerobatic with only the O.S. .46. It snap rolls as fast as my 3D planes. I had 6" rubber tires on it that were pretty heavy and I've gone to 6" foam tires for less weight. It seems to land at a slower speed but doesn't soak up the bums as well. It will fly inverted no problem and carry tons of weight. Knife edge takes quite a bit of speed but it does it pretty well.
 

Ak Flyer

Fly the wings off
Mentor
For comparison here's my four star .60 on a very windy day at the airport. It's also very fast and I had just bought it so I was getting used to it. I broke a couple props with crappy landings that day. It's hard to tell from the video unless you're watching close but it was ripping down wind and almost stopped pointed into the wind. The sport plane handles the gusts about the same as the cub up high but it's got a semi symmetrical wing so it goes upside down better but rolls about the same. As you can see, the landings take up quite a bit of real estate. Smooth ground makes the rollout huge. I've added 5" fat foam tires to it so I can land on the rougher ground where I was flying the cub in the first video. Grass helps a lot but I don't have any nice grass fields close by. Anyway here it is.

 

lobstermash

Propaganda machine
Mentor
Cubs are great fun. They aren't the best in the wind, much like a trainer they have a large wing and light loading so they get blown around more, but I fly my big cub in wind and it does well once you are accustomed to it. Here's a video I made last year of my 76.5" balsa cub when I was still getting used to it. It's extremely aerobatic with only the O.S. .46. It snap rolls as fast as my 3D planes. I had 6" rubber tires on it that were pretty heavy and I've gone to 6" foam tires for less weight. It seems to land at a slower speed but doesn't soak up the bums as well. It will fly inverted no problem and carry tons of weight. Knife edge takes quite a bit of speed but it does it pretty well.

That's a beauty! I've got a huge soft spot for cubs...
 

pgerts

Old age member
Mentor
Did you mention size?
What is really fun is 1/12 WWII combat planes - why not the corsair?
One reason might be that it is only 3 ch if you fly like combat.-
All of the planes in this class are fun, takes any wind - and rain, fits in the car, cheap to build and to run.
If you are getting into something bigger - the Kyosho Calmato Sport 60 has almost been an icon around this part of the world fitted with an 90-120 4-stroke. The plane is among the best you can fly in this size but the danger seems to be that you get a little to god confidence in yourself and that limits the lifetime of the plane - better to buy some ;-)
But as Glydr told - if you got the wind and some nice slope areas - nothing will be more fun.
 

themajik1

Monkey/Bear Poker
Mentor
I guess it would depend on the amount of wind, but most of the guys I fly with have a Ugly Stick, 60 size. They are very aerobatic and fly on rails.

All of the guys that fly in my club that are glow have them, and when I move to glow this is one of the first I am going to get.

I know you want glow, but I have purchased the EFlite Yak 54 CZ and I am so happy with this plane it isn't funny... I am not yet a 3D flier, but I do know that the plane takes a 15-20 mph wind well and flies great!

Just food for thought....
 

bicyclemonkey

Flying Derp
Mentor
This is my first glow plane...and it's a 4-stroke glow as well as being my first glow!! We'll see how this works out.

http://forum.flitetest.com/showthread.php?2588-ECOMRC-Miss-Elaine&highlight=ecomrc

Since you are comfortable flying a Corsair you'll do absolutely fine with a Four Star. Also the Great Planes Escapade is a great low wing sport plane. For the wind, the heavier/bigger the plane the better. Also like majik said, you can't go wrong with a Stik...you could do the Giant Big Stik if you have a $600 budget.

Here's the 68" escapade with a 1.20 glow four stroke.


This guys got a nice four star 120

 
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Pilot-294

Senior Member
hey thanks for all the replies already! i kinda like the escapade and four star idea but i havnt got around to reading all the posts yet. im gonna go over them soon but i was thinking today. what do you guys think about getting something fairly scale to fly like a p51 or corsair or maybe even a P38? (probably not on the 38 but just saying haha)
 

pgerts

Old age member
Mentor
Any warbird is fine - if you got a nice flying field. Specially with a multi cylinder engine.
It is something special with a warbird but the flying fun comes with planes you can toss around in the air an close to the ground without getting all to worried.
 

UltimaRatioRegum

Junior Member
In the UK we have something called a WOT4 designed by the great Chris Foss. It is an ideal plane to take you from beginner right up to advanced. I'm not sure if you can get it in the US?
It uses 40-60 sized motors (perfect for the beginner) and is a truly amazing plane. I have been flying RC for over 15 years and have never been without one in the hangar.
 

bicyclemonkey

Flying Derp
Mentor
If you're new to glow you may want to consider an open cowl plane so you can easily access the engine for tuning and adjustments. From what I understand, 2-stroke glow engines don't like to be run inverted which is what you'd have to do in a warbird or risk hacking up the cowl and have the engine sticking through the top. Or you'd have to run a 4-stroke since they can be inverted. As far as flight characteristics you'd be able to handle pretty much any warbird if you can fly and land the corsair. P-47 being probably the most docile.

Even though, I'd probably seriously consider the Big Stik in any of its forms. There are several companies that make Stick planes if you don't like the Red Baron scheme of the Great Planes unit.
 

Ak Flyer

Fly the wings off
Mentor
You can run a 2 stroke in any orientation, but inverted isn't recommended. The problem with inverted is that the glow plug cools because at low rpm fuel pools directly on the plug and it may die in flight. My cub has the engine sitting sideways with the head to the right and it runs like a champ.
2011-07-13_21-13-21_506.jpg

The fourstar has an open cowl with side plates that make it look good but it's easy to work on.

IMAG0737.jpg 2012-05-30_17-53-18_306.jpg
 
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Pilot-294

Senior Member
P-51 Mustang MxII PTS? its down to $400 and even tho i have a Dx6i already, i can always use a buddy box haha but a $400 rtf with flaps and being glow i think it might be a nice starter at a nice price. of course im putting servos in the flaps right away.

also, does anybody know if putting retracts on it might be easy or a huge pain?
 

Ak Flyer

Fly the wings off
Mentor
I forgot about that one. That looks like a really good plane.

I really enjoyed the flitetest review of it (hint hint Chad) :rolleyes:

That's probably the best way possible to get into a warbird for someone new to glow. I hear great things about the evolution motors too.

I think that it would be quite a bit of work to put retracts in that model. You may not want to for a while because the stock wire gear places the wheels quite a bit further ahead then scale landing gear giving you a longer wheelbase and more stability on the ground as well as greatly reducing the tendency to nose over on take off and landing.

For those that missed it..