[ronm]

Originally Posted by can773

Just to clear up the BS, I have never received a free engine from YS.....in fact my cost is only about $100 US less than street pricing.

There just is not anything better

'Cept.......maybe............ELECTRIC?????

[Guest]

Originally Posted by ronm

'Cept.......maybe............ELECTRIC?????

In theory yes

The only question on electric in my mind which still is not fully answered is reliability of the entire system including the batteries.

If it proves to be reliable, there is not a glow engine made today that will rival electric for aerobatics. They are the pinnacle of what we strive to make a glow engine do.....plus I wont have to clean my plane lol.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by scaleguy

Like CF said you can get 2.25 Enya 155s for the price of the YS 1.40 and I am sure the 1.60 will be even more.

Street pricing on the 160 is identical to the 140, $640US.

A better comparison to the 155 would be the YS 140 Sport, they are $440 US and will compare better in power. The 155 is rated at about 2.5hp and the 140 Sport is up at 3 hp.....YS rates all their motors at rpms they actually run at.

The 160DZ just outclasses every other engine of similar displacement 2 or 4 stroke that its not really fair to compare the pricing. Guys are spinning 19" props on them over 8000 rpm. It puts out a tad more than 4 hp at that rpm.

[ronm]

That "theory" is either true now, or will be shortly in the future.
I tend to think the technology is already there, it's just a matter of the manufacturers and the RC community "catching up" with the technology.

There is no reason to believe that the reliability will not be there either now, or in the very near future.
In fact, I think the Canadian world team will prove the reliability to themselves this year!

[Guest]

Originally Posted by ronm

That "theory" is either true now, or will be shortly in the future.
I tend to think the technology is already there, it's just a matter of the manufacturers and the RC community "catching up" with the technology.

There is no reason to believe that the reliability will not be there either now, or in the very near future.
In fact, I think the Canadian world team will prove the reliability to themselves this year!

Well thinking about it from a financial perspective, they should be far more reliable than a glow setup. A glow setup is maintainable, in other words if there is a problem its quite simple to fix with relatively inexpensive off the shelf parts and very little knowledge. If you damage a jug of fuel through contamination or mishandling, again a couple of bucks and you are back in business.

Now if you damage an ESC, batteries or motor either through misuse, abuse, or they simply were at the end of their life your only true option is to purchase new ones unless the manufacturer will replace them for you. All these components are multiple hundreds of US each, its not unrealistic that if one fails it will cause enough problems that subsequent components will fail.

So the components should last without any failure at least what I consider the useful life of my glow motors which is between 1500-2000 flights. The motor and controller I can beleive will accomplish this, the batteries however will not....in fact not even close. Right now 200-300 flights per pack would be the norm, 500 would be superb performance. Now thats per pack, you run 4 packs so its more like 800-1200 flights before you are replacing batteries if nothing goes wrong!

Going off track for a moment for fun

4 packs is worth about $2800 US street at the moment, or around $3500 CND. A case of XP 30% heli fuel is around $100 CND, thats 35 cases (140 gallons) of fuel. A typical YS 140DZ would burn a gallon up in 7 flights...so about 1000 flights on average for 35 cases of fuel lets say. So its give or take about the same value if nothing fails, thats the key!!! If one little thing goes wrong electric just became significantly more expensive.

This is for pattern stuff, we are up in the 65-70 amp peak range for draw. About 2200 W from the batteries, much greater than average electric stuff. Most of the flight is at part throttle load which is demanding on controllers I am told. For sport stuff with 20-40 amp draws its a no brainer, I think electric is there for that market, but its still a bit bleeding edge for the 10-12 lbs stuff. Its years off the mark for anything bigger IMO.

[ronm]

4 packs is worth about $2800 US street at the moment, or around $3500 CND. A case of XP 30% heli fuel is around $100 CND, thats 35 cases (140 gallons) of fuel. A typical YS 140DZ would burn a gallon up in 7 flights...so about 1000 flights on average for 35 cases of fuel lets say. So its give or take about the same value if nothing fails, thats the key!!! If one little thing goes wrong electric just became significantly more expensive.

Agreed, but you can expect the battery prices to drop substantialy over the next couple of years. Fuel will only go up.
And electric will soon be significantly "less" expensive than glow!

[Guest]

Originally Posted by ronm

Agreed, but you can expect the battery prices to drop substantialy over the next couple of years. Fuel will only go up.
And electric will soon be significantly "less" expensive than glow!

Fuel will probably continue to increase in price, but only incrementally.

I disagree that batteries (at least in this size) will get any cheaper. I have been following this now since it was first done about 3 years ago, the prices remain exactly the same. The batteries have gotten better, so value wise you are getting more bang for the buck, but out of pocket expense remains the same.

I think that will be the trend until new developments slow or stop, same price just better gear