I am certainly no expert in electric flight, but I am lucky enough to have had enough hardware to test out some power trains and report on my findings.  My privileges with the abundance of electric components comes about from a passion with ebaY. Having bought some cheap Chinese stuff from said suppliers in Hong Kong, and making e-mail contact... I cheekily requested that I might deal direct with the supplier, thinking "If you don't ask, you don't get".  Well I got about 40% discount over any other ebaY supplier, and without paying the commission and silly postage imposed by them. I was able to buy in bulk by getting a group of flyers together, and we all made enough savings to pay for our hobby.

When an electric aircraft's motors started to fail due to its brushes wearing, I purchased cheap replacements from Hong Kong. When NiCad battery packs stopped delivering the power, I bought LiPo packs from Japan. At each replacement, a significant improvement was immediately seen.

Now I was getting cocky. When I went to swap meets, I found aircraft that were designed and built for I/C and that I liked the looks of. When I thought that it may accept a brushless / LiPo power train, and conversed this with fellow fliers.... it was only when they said that it could not be converted, that I bought the airframe.

I bought a Ripmax throwaway Alienator for a "tenner" from "Wings and Wheels", (I think that everybody did) I put a £20 brushless in the front, and it transformed it into as lightweight floater.............  You loose so much weight that it flies so slowly you can catch it.

I did a half conversion to a "TwinJet".  It flew great on an eight cell NiCad, but when you threw it yourself for a take off, it would always catch the grass before it took to the blue skies.  Put a 3 cell LiPo inside its belly, and you would never drop its nose and you could fly for 25 minutes.

Have you played with those bell motors yet?  When I first started to import them from Hong Kong they cost £13. They will directly compare with a speed 480, but have more power, take less power and the brushes cannot possibly wear out. They can also take a 3 cell LiPo pack without danger of smoke or fire. I have used these in a  Built-up wooden Partenavia (not the foamie)..... that takes off like a Harrier on an aircraft carrier and will fly for 15 minutes. I have scratch built a Depron Skyvan with an old square glider wing with a pair of these motors. This weighs something like a tube of Sweetex (Ex bag of sugar but lighter). The Skyvan is brilliant......  slow flying, long durations and silent. Details are on the Hints and Tips pages under "Depron"

I bought a 72" span traditionally built De Havilland Chipmunk built for a 60 2 stroke, and  bolted a £30 Chinese brushless motor onto the motor mount. Took the tank out (smelly thing) and bolted a fistful of lead into the cowl to attain C of G again. The whole lot weighed seven and a half of your English pounds. With four LiPo's it made a nice car, but with 6 cells (22.4 volts) to rose to the sky. I would like to say it roared into the sky...........  but it was almost silent. It flew for 9 minutes and shocked the onlookers. SIX cells I hear the cry,  how much did that lot cost? Well, £40 from ebaY actually.  Up to date I have converted a Cessna 177 weighing 8Lb (below), the 7Lb Chipmunk (right), a 600mm speed 400 Vulcan, Alienator, Zagi, EasyStar, TwinJet, Mentor, and numerous other aircraft to Brushless motors.  Once you try it, you will never want another brush. Below right is a Tiger Force made by Protech. Designed for a .40 two stroke, but now sporting a 300watt brushless motor. Flies nicely on 3 LiPo cells, but magic on a 4 cell pack.

Take a look at an "electric savvy" web site, and find out about electric flight in the 21st century. Take note of the bits you want, and see if I have already tried it, and have an opinion of it.  RobotBirds is an excellent site for starters. They can sell you motors, speedo's and LiPo's..... all matched up and ready to install. Whilst other shops and outlets may sell electric stuff, they may not be technical experts. Call RobotBirds however, and they will be able to talk to you about it, and advise you the best combinations for your model. If the phone is engaged, they are probably chatting to potential buyers in great detail.

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Balsacraft EasyStreet - Martin Riley

This aircraft is designed for a can 600 motor spinning a 9"4" prop, but seeing the performance of some of the Webmasters upgraded models to brushless, I thought that this would be a good intro to the technology as the kit came without a motor or Speed controller. The model has ample room for an Outrunner to spin, so a look around the trade stands at the Nationals dragged me towards a TowerPro unit. It was lots cheaper than equivalent powered motors from other manufacturers, but it appeared well made. The motor kit came with a spare prop shaft, a front mount for firewall bolting, and a rear mount for a pusher configuration.  All bullets and heat shrink came in the pack too.

40" span, 4 channel aerobatic ARTF model marketed by Ripmax. I chose the longer of the two motors, no reason why, but I did. On two cell packs it is sedate, but swift. rates are a must so you can contain the roll rate so you can take a breather. On a 3 cell pack, you can imagine the difference..... half as much power again.
	The motor comes in two varieties. The longer one spins at 980 RPM per volt (980kv), whilst the shorter one is 1200kv both are optimised for 3 cell LiPo packs
Impressive bag of mounts, bolts and other essentials came as part of the motor purchase

A brilliant introduction to electric flight.  This model is small enough to throw in your boot built up, to just add a battery when the sun comes up. With the brushless motor, weight is greatly reduced over the speed 600 set-up. With the weight loss comes agility and additional flight times, and of course slower / softer landings. Any brushless option will allow the use of 3 cell LiPo packs which gives the extra umph over any NiCad pack you have lying around. Three cells into a can motor will be fine for a few flights, then the dust from the brush's blow away......... and you have no motor.

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IFO - Indoor Flying Object - Paul Harrison

This aircraft is designed for indoor flying (as the name might suggest) and park flying on calmer days. It is a carbon rod framed circle with transmitter mixed Elevons. A pair of the lightest servos you can afford, along with a short range ultra light receiver are the basic equipment of this unusual model. Origin power train was a six or seven cell AAA NiCad pack and a "Can 380" turning a 10" x 4.7" GWS type "Slowfly" prop through the GWS gearbox.

A substantial upgrade to the above format is a brushless / LiPo power set-up. I picked up my IFO from the Loughborough 2006 Swapmeet for a fiver. It was basically the carbon framework with a pair of hinged and horned control surfaces. 

The keep the weight to a minimum, I selected a brushless outrunner that was happy to spin a 10"x4.7" GWS prop on a two cell LiPo pack, as that is the guide prop size. The motor selected is an outrunner rather than a brushless " can style" motor, as I did not want to add the weight and complexity of a gearbox that would be required with that type of motor.  My motor is a Waypoint E2208-34 outrunner from RobotBirds for around £15, and it is controlled by the smallest 10 amp speed controller I could economically find. All up and ready for flight, my IFO weighs in at a mere 134 grams.

I covered the carbon frame with transparent Solarfilm to start the upgrade off, and then added a pair of 3.6 gram servos. As the model was previously owned, the control surfaces had already got horns and link rods..... so it was easy enough to just glue the servos at the correct distance from the hinge line to establish full movement of the Elevons. The battery flight pack that I chose is a 2 cell - 7.4 volt 350 maH unit with a 26C capacity, again from RobotBirds for £13.00. The model on less than full throttle will put vertical out of your hand with no effort, and the draft from the prop will pull the carbon around a room extremely slowly with full control. Thrust from the power train is difficult to measure with a circular model made of Solarfilm, but I saw 240 grams on the scales before I lost my grip - It should be able to hover rather easily on the 2 cell set-up.

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6mm Depron F15 pusher jet - Paul Harrison

This aircraft is built from 6mm grey Depron sheeting, and has a total build value of about £5. The model is basically a copy of the brilliant HET F18 built from balsa and ply..... and has almost exactly the same dimensions. These would look good together at the flying field. shame I can't fly them both at the same time myself.
	Everything looks the same until you look at the back of the model. The HET F18 (£80 kit) is powered by a fairly expensive brushless EDF unit (£60 for the fan and motor) and a 2500maH four cell LiPo pack.... (£80) this Depron model is powered by a £9.00 brushless bell motor and prop, and a 3 cell 1500maH LiPo @ £19. Once complete, the model will be painted up to increase its realistic appearance, but for now night time grey will have to suffice. The blue tape lines are the hinges and the covering for the carbon wing spars.
The HET model uses mixed Elevons, where the Depron model has an all moving tail surface as well as conventional ailerons.

Just a note on the performance to be expected...  the HET model weighs a magnificent 1080 grams, where the Depron model is a mere 380 grams. These are fully loaded model weights including battery flight packs. This is power to weight difference should be quite exiting, as the bell motor is noted for its high performance from such a small size, and can be utilised spinning between a 8"x4" and a 10"x7" Slowfly prop.