RC Novice

    If you would have asked me this question when I first started about 4 years ago I would have laughed and said DUH GLOW! But things have changed considerably with development of Lipo battery's, These things are simply amazing but the cost is high. This section will not cover recievers or servos becasue you will make the same considerations with either glow or electric.

    Lipo (electric power)

    Lipo batterys work extreamly well and are a good replacement for the smaller rc airplanes and rc helicopters that are .40 size and smaller. Anything larger than that are, in my opinion, cost prohibitive. Things get very expansive very fast. In the section Costs Involved I will compare the cost of a typical glow rc airplane and rc helicopter to the same airframe in electric with lipo's. You will see that in the aircraft that are ,40 the cost are similar when you factor in fuel but after the .40 size things get out of hand pretty quickly. Even the .40 size aircraft are pretty expensive.

    Lipo Chargers

    Lipo batterys have a completly different chemistry then the batterys  used commonly to power your transmitters and recievers, thus require a much different type of charger. Be warned, if you use the wrong charger or charge them at the wrong setting they WILL catch FIRE. You would be surprised  at the volatility  of these batterys. If you don't believe me check out the Lipo Sack. The website has video of a battery catching fire. Now I really think this is at the extream end of the lipo danger but I feel it is worth mentioning. In the two years that I have been flying lipos I never had one catch fire. One time I had a battery swell after a flight. I just set it off to the side and eventually properly descharged it and disposed of it. Once they exibit swelling get rid of the battery. OK again if your still reading this GOOD,  I didn't scare you away yet. These batterys are truly amazing to use in the smaller planes. Now back to the chargers.

    As mentioned before you will need a special charger to keep these batterys ready for flight. The chargers range anywhere from $29.95 up to $200+ depending on the size of the battery. I am not going to get into costs right now but just know your going to need one.

    Motor & Speed Controller

    Along with the lipo battery your going to need an electric motor and speed controller. You probably want to think of these two at the same time when making your purchase. The speed controller is very important as it is not only supplying the power to your motor, but it is also sending power to your reciever, that in turn drives your servos. The speed controller usually has three larger gauge wires that connect to the motor, it also connects to the throttle plug on your reciever and two larger connections for the battery. The reciever gets it's power from the throttle connection of the speed controller. Again I am not going to get into costs right now but just know your going to need at least one motor and one speed controller.