Nitro or electric??

[Neil_J]

Hi,

I'm looking to buy a T-Rex 600 (electric or nitro) in the next few weeks.. It will be used for both flying at the local field on weekends, and aerial photography. I've wanted a nitro since I started watching the guys with .50's and .90's at the field. However, I could see a problem with smoke and vibration if I used it for aerial photography. At the same time I could see the nitro working out better for long shoots, i.e. keeping it in the air for long durations...

So should I get the Nitro, or the electric?

Thanks,

Neil

[DebianDog]

I would say the most of the AP guys run electric or really well tuned gassers. The smoke and oil from a nitro is problematic.

[SeaHawk]

Gas works very well, cheap fuel, long air time. I don't spend anytime tuning, not for 3 years anyway. I use a simple underslung mount and have taken photos down to 1/60th so vibes are not issue for me. All things being equal, average electric will be smoother, in theory, but you pay premium for batteries and flight time is much shorter. Either will work very well, you just need to weigh the various advantages/disadvantages for how you plan on using it.

[Neil_J]

Gas works very well, cheap fuel, long air time. I don't spend anytime tuning, not for 3 years anyway. I use a simple underslung mount and have taken photos down to 1/60th so vibes are not issue for me. All things being equal, average electric will be smoother, in theory, but you pay premium for batteries and flight time is much shorter. Either will work very well, you just need to weigh the various advantages/disadvantages for how you plan on using it.

Still seems like a tough decision :) If I can't make up my mind I'll have to buy one of each.. man this hobby is addictive enough as it is

[crewchief]

I've toyed with the idea of getting a gasser for a larger ship, but have decided on the Maxi-Joker2 instead. The reason is due to the very positive experiences I am now having with my T-Rex 600. When I had my smaller camera mount installed, most people who happened to see it in the air thought it was a real helicopter! Since it's difficult to judge sizes and distances, and since the rotor roar and motor/gear noise make it sound like a full-sized turbine helicopter far away, I never get bothered by anyone.

Most of my shoots are in neighborhoods and fairly conjested areas, flying out of back yards, etc., and the electric goes nearly unnoticed. There's no messing around with fuel, startup, warmup, choke, fuel mixture, and none of that objectionable 2-cycle "model airplane noise", that sometimes attracts negative attention. I can deploy and execute the mission in 3-4 minutes, and have the heli back in the van before anybody even knows what happened. I was asked to demo this procedure recently and received a full-time contract for AP services. The demo was in a business park, and I'm confident they wouldn't have been comfortable if I'd pulled out a gasser and started yanking on the cord like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

You can get a high capacity battery from MaxAmps, and I'm sure other sources, for way less than Thunder Power and other "name brands", and they actually perform much better. Most batteries are good for 300 cycles or 80-100 hours of flight, so even though it's a big chunk of change up front, they will last for a long time. Let's say you're flying a heavy T600 and getting 12 minutes with a 8000mAh battery charge, or 5 charges per hour, or 60 hours in 300 cycles. If you get 60 hours out of a $400 battery, your "fuel" cost is $6.67/hr. With a light load 15-minute flights are the norm, which turns out to be $5/hr depreciation.

There's a lot to be said for gassers. They're simple, robust, a good bang for the buck, have great endurance and lifting power. It's a tough decision, but I guess I tend to lean slightly towards the electrics, even though the larger 810mm models are more expensive than their gasser cousins. I definitely wouldn't go the nitro route for AP, though, so if you're looking at the T600, it's a no-brainer.

[SeismicCWave]

Hi,

I'm looking to buy a T-Rex 600 (electric or nitro) in the next few weeks.. It will be used for both flying at the local field on weekends, and aerial photography. I've wanted a nitro since I started watching the guys with .50's and .90's at the field. However, I could see a problem with smoke and vibration if I used it for aerial photography. At the same time I could see the nitro working out better for long shoots, i.e. keeping it in the air for long durations...

So should I get the Nitro, or the electric?

Thanks,

Neil

If you plan to use the heli for AP you will have to get the electric. Unless of course you want oil and finger prints on your camera from a glow fueled heli.

[Neil_J]

Excellent answers. I'll go electric, I seems to have a lot of advantages..

[eyeinsky]

I have been using a nitro engine in my Raptor with a fwd mount. My take off weight is 11lbs and powered by an OS 32 engine. The advantage of the small engine is the smoke is reduced considerably over 50, 60 and 90 engine. The tail has been streched out to 880mm and currently run 620 blades at 1650 to 1700rpm. The fwd mount does not give issues to smoke and has proven to stay clean. Some smoke issue in the picture only if strong winds are at the tail.

I have considered converting to electric but that is down the road when the prices come down on the batteries.

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb8/eyeinsky/DSC02499.jpg
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb8/eyeinsky/DSC02469.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RW9c-mp-Tk