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Electric, glow or petrol?


Nev Haycox
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I have a Seagull Zlin 50 in it’s box waiting for a power plant, but I am in three minds as to which way to go, electric, four stroke glow or petrol. I would therefore be interested to know what you would use as a power plant if the Zlin 50 were yours.

I have no experience with IC, only electric, but wish to give it a try at some point, so bare that in mind if that’s the route you would take. Please be specific and give make, model and size etc.

Go on have your say.

I look forward to your suggestions.

Nev.

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What wingspan is it? Seagull seem to make a lot of their planes in various sizes. If it is the 67 inch one which is the one I have found, the engine reccomendation (four stroke glow) is 91-100 cu.inch.

A DLE 30 sounds rather large. I would go 4-stroke glow, maybe a Saito FA100, or a Laser 100 for the best of British!  See what other people say and find out exactly what you want before committing yourself. I would go for an engine over electric, lovely sound!

CS

Edited By ConcordeSpeedbird on 01/07/2012 19:25:33

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DLE 20 sounds better. Have a search around on the internet, see what others have done. You can also call your local model shop for help and if you are in a club, ask some IC guys there.

The DLE 20 is unsurprisingly considerably heavier than the Saito FA100 but it is more powerful, and probably better on fuel consumption. It would fly the Zlin well I'm sure. There are lots of other options as well so don't be afraid to search around!

Hope this helps

CS

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Dle 30 is way way over the top for the zlin, mine had asp 108 (18cc) and went perfectly, loads of vert with this motor, personally i would not got petrol for zlin i dont think its big enough to warrant it, go petrol and you will need mg servos and extra battery pack, go for large glow pick up asp 108 for about 100 quid or super tigre 2300 for 130 quid the money saved will buy an awful lot of straight fuel
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I would tend to agree with Lee. A petrol engine in a model this size is going to up the wing loading quite a bit - and that's nearly always at the expense of flyability. All other things being equal the model with the lighter wing loading will generally be more forgiving and have a wider performance envelope.

So I would go either 4-stroke glow or electric. As to which 4-stroke? Well take our pick. An OS91FS is nice - and would be fine if you just want "full-size" style aeros. A 100/120 would give you that bit of extra poke for a more "free-style" aerobatics approach if that is your bag.

BEB

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wing loading is fine on my zlin it come out lighter than stated in the review in the mag anyway wink seroiusly the dle 20 is the first petrol engine that matches glow for power to weight.i had to put my batterys as far forward as possible to get cog using 2 life packs on reciever as well as 4,8 nimh on ignition.i have my cog set to netral in inverted/dive test too.

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Sigh!!!! pitts muffler running out through bottom and synthetic oil leaves minimal residue even after 5 flights, you pay the extra hundred quid and the mg servos that are needed i will use the money for 10 gallons of fuel and a cloth, each to their own but i dont see the point in a model this small
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We seem to be gravitating towards IC with two schools of thought glow or petrol. The modern petrol engines are a lot lighter than of old, the is dre20 is about 820g a 91 fs is about 650g if extra nose weight is needed as Autenrover said then it makes no difference , price is much the same to and there is a lot to commend both so it really comes down to what you fancy, also consider what advice you can get hands on at the field, if you are the only guy with a petrol engine then you are on are your own which can be kinda fun or a real bummer.

I can see what Lee means but I would go for a DRE 20 just for the fun of it.

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Depends on how much money you want to spend! I would go for a 108 glow motor SC,ASP etc,they sound ok, not like a smaller 40 size glow and as Lee says,you can buy a lot of fuel for the money you save! Also, noise is an issue at the CMFC field i remember the dark days when it was nearly lost through noise so, a quiet engine is a good engine!yes

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Posted by Lee Smalley on 02/07/2012 21:21:47:
The weight stated in the mag is not the weight of the review model it is nigh on impossible for yours to be lighter than the review model, i am sure the the wing loading is fine i just dont see the point of petrol engines in such a relative small airframe

whats the point in the review if its states no real auw just whats on the boxblush ,no offense ment lee.i brought the model on the back of the review. i was just trying to state that i needed the nose weight of the dle20 and batterys as far forward as possible to balance at a point where the cog is at its rearward limit ie netral reaction in inflight tests.the wing loading is fine it flys very slow.

120 f/s would work out too glow wise .unless someones hidden some lead in the back of mine the zlins build tail heavy just my experience.

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Austin i agree on the review weight thing but often we cannot weigh the model, i dont know about you but i do not have scales at home that go that high!!! so we go off what the manufacturer says. which lets face it will not be far off!! noise is a concern with some peccy engines, my dle 32 is stupid noisey thanks to the useless muffler supplied, with an after market muffler it is easy to get way below 88db

firstly to me the onlt reasons for fitting a petrol are ££ saving on fuel, some people say reliability as well but my old ASP 108 never missed a beat so i can not agree, so on the cost saving side of things any benefit starts to dissapear below 30cc, the extra cost of the engine MG servos extra battery pack, ignition cut off etc all add to the overall cost, and the faff of having to keep stuff charged, and space gets limited very quickly!!!

I had a 73" superstar with DLE 32 and it was a tight squeeze! when the HT lead severed thanks to vibration i took it out and put a large glow in, its just less faff, some people like faff and thats fine but if its less than 30cc i can't be bothered thats all!!

to summerize i would personally not put a 20cc petrtol in the zlin, 1 because of cost 2, because of space, and 3, because of faff, i would not go fourstroke either as you would need a 150 or above to get the same performance as an 18cc 2 stroke and the costs!

ASP 108 £100 4x hs485hbs £15.00 each no ignigtion battery total £160 ish

DLE 20 £180 4x hs645 25.00 ign batt £10.00 ign kill switch £10.00 £300 ish

saving at least 100 quid ....... thats a lot of fuel !!!! 8 gallons !!!! minimum

just my opinion but an honest one..... saying that i am dying to fire up my MVVS 40cc petrol now ....mmmmm!!

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