Let's pretend for a few minutes that I want to get an electric, something like the small warbirds Billy flies from Hobby Lobby. I see many of them come with a motor/gearbox, some don't, and they list the needed accessories there as well. Are those accessories (battery, speed control, etc) the type of stuff I would want? I already know the answer to this, but that's sort of the reason for this thread. I guess I'd just like to know more about what it takes to get set up so I can decide if I want to dive in just yet.

Thanks guys.

Billy can answer this more precisely, I just kind of dive in and get it working (what I do with almost all of my planes :^).

There is a pretty good initial investment. You have to buy the plane, motor (brushless), speed controller (brushless), batteries (li poly), servos, charger (if you're using li poly), mini receiver..... I have over 6 small electrics now. The cost comes down some as you can use the same batteries on a majority of models and of course once you buy the charger you don't need to rebuy it. The trick is to keep a lot of it compatable to minimize some of the expense...

Unfortunately it's not as easy as with glow, ie 40 sz plane, go get a 40-60 sz engine to put on it.

One thing that will save you a head-ache is, if you're going to do it, do it right! Brushed motor & lipo batteries!!

Brushed or brushless motor.. I'd recommend brushless, more power, more efficient, longer lasting.. of course more money but the performance, lack of trouble is worth it.

Gear or no gear (outrunner or inrunner).. The inrunner motors came out first. They run great but to make more power and run bigger size propellers you have to use a gear to change the prop ratio/powerband.

On my earlier foam planes I ran a 370 size inrunner with a gear ratio of 6:1 so that the inrunner would turn 6 times to the propellers 1 time. I could turn a 12X6 prop and the foam plane would rocket straight up!! The downside is that there's much higher maintenance on the gear box and it's very easy to strip the gears or break the gearbox!

Outrunner (no gearbox).. These motors are designed to turn a larger prop to eliminate the gear drive. Much simpler, mounts similar to a glow engine motor mount, maintenance free, a little more money..

Speed controllers.. There are 2 kinds, 1 for the brushed and 1 for the brushless of course. You need the matching controller for your motor. Once again, more money for the brushless speed controller.

Batteries, nicad, nihm or li-poly.. I believe that you get much better performance with a li-poly battery for several reasons.

1. Quite often the MAH or milliamps per hour are the same but the li-poly will have a higher voltage which with the end result if more available power which in turn means that you don't have to run the motor to achieve the same performance.

2. Li-poly (lipo) batteries are much lighter which again translates to more performance from a small plane. EX, to get 11.1 volts from a lipo you just need a small 3 cell battery. For nicad, you would need 8 AA batteries to achieve a similar voltage... Way more weight that you are going to have to carry to fly!!!!

Hope some of this makes sense.....

Jon

Yea, what Jon said. The way I get my set-ups is: Pick the plane you like, then search RC Universe and RC Groups and find what the consensus is on the best set-up. Believe me, there are hundreds of different set-ups and most have been tried. I just go behind them and use the set-up that has worked the best.

Excellent information, thanks guys!

The Me109 and FW190 are calling my name.

Guys, does this seem like a good deal?

Click me.

From what I've read today that's a pretty good motor, not sure about that speed control though.

Also, which charger(s) do y'all like?

edit: well, they took the auction down. It was an Alfa P-47 w/MP Jet red outrunner and an eflite 20a speed controller for $130.

Hey Mike!
The link doesn't work but be weary of items that are second hand unless you know the person personally.
Most time the reason they're getting rid of it is because they dont like it.
Ask why? ;)

Joust a tip.
Hope it helps.
P.S. New is always better, you know what your getting. :thumbup: