The guy pictured flying here has a half-A size electric powered airplane on the end of those 35' .008 lines.  Yes it's Bob Hunt, flying in his back yard.  Today.  Telephoto lens makes the site look smaller, but there's room there for a 70' circle.
In other picture is my friend Ray Borden, Bob Hunt, and myself with four of my small electric C/L ships.
No, they're not "serious" stunters.  They're made out of sheet foam.  But they're fun.  Each of these four has a different power setup, some better, all fairly capable.  And I think they show that small electric powered stunters are possible.  If you could see Bob flying some of them through the pattern maneuvers, you might be impressed. 
I post these pictures to suggest that half-A size electric stunters can be made, now, with available hardware, if anybody wants to.  For fun. 

Yea, like Bob said, more info!

Dick,
   Where do you find the time? You need to let me in on the secret.  Looks like you guys had a lot of fun. To bad the indoor fun fly never got off the ground, maybe next year?

   For those who are interested, Dick has already published several articles on 1/2a electric sheet foam C/L models. This would make for a neat event since 1/2a glow engines are getting scarce!!

Mike

Hi,
You guys are having too much fun and hopefully Ya'll will just be the first
among many to enjoy this particular brand of fun.

My question is, at some point, somebody is gonna want to compete in 1/2 A
stunt with his electric "fun-machine" and therefore precisely defining what an equivalent electric motor for an .046-.061 IC engine actually or for defining what size limit for a 1/2 A size airplane actually is and then powering it with electric will need to be worked out.  It's one of them "new fangled lectric dilemmas that's out causing folks to be messing with rules again"  

I guess when you do something as revolutionary as Electric Stunt then all kinds ancillary questions get stirred up along the way. I don't know enough to
suggest proposals just raise the question and hope lots of other people get to share the fun.
Actually, the idea of flying 1/2 A stunt without dealing finicky, cranky, balky and ear-splitting screaming little engines sounds more and more like fun to me.  Flying in your backyard with no neighbor complaints sounds even better.  Some guys have all the fun.
                                                                     Pat Robinson

I hope that the 1/2A stunt community will be receptive to allowing electric power technology.  It would of course be easy to prohibit electric power.  I have no idea how to define 1/2A electric power, but I think it should not be done by a 6" prop size limitation.  An electric motor may never come even close to the rpm's of a high revving Cox/Norvel, but can get the performance by turning a larger prop at lower rpm's.  Aircraft size or line length are probably not a good definition.  Maybe the technical guys can call for a watts rating, say 200 watts or so, something equivalent to the Cox/Norvel hp output.   

Hi Guys,

I am the person who diverted this thread from a story on fun electric planes
to more serious rules type stuff.  I therefore, felt responsible to find out and pass along accurate information on this topic. I went to the rule book and I conferred with Keith Trostle and this is what I found out.

1/2  A stunt , Profile / P-40 stunt are "Unofficial Events". Which means that no contest board has set any national standards for these event which would be laid out in Supplemental rules.

Unofficial Events must meet the safety requirements of Official Events to be allowed at AMA meets but that is all that is mentioned.

The key point we all need to understand is that:
It is the sponsoring club and the CD who responsible and is the ultimate authority on setting the rules for an Unofficial Event. What is expected and required is if there are rules deviations in an Official Event or if the is a change in the rules of an Unofficial Event from prior practice then those deviations or changes must be publicly announced and advertised in advance.

So if a club chooses to drop a p-40 event and go with a "no engine limit Profile event " then that club and CD are free to do so as long as they advertise those changes.

So, If a club and a CD wish to include electric planes in profile and 1/2 stunt events then those clubs and CDs are free to include them as long as they advertise those rules changes in advance.

Clubs and CDs are also free not to include electrics because they are the authority over the Unofficial Events they put on.

The question each club and CD must answer do they want to create events that are more inclusive or is it in the best interest of the club to be more excluding. My club has no engine limits Profile and I have seen everything fro 19 to 60 powered planes and Profile event always has the biggest number of entries at every contest. Each club must make their own decisions.

I can understand a CDs desire for some way to define "electric size" for motors to help keep things orderly and perhaps a tech whiz like Dean Pappas
will chime in and provide the guidance that's needed or at least get in the ball park which might provide the understanding to simplify the CD's job.

Keith Trostle, had this to say:
"I think a simple explanation is that the current AMA 2007 rulebook provides for all conceivable sizes of electric powered CLPA models. There definitely does NOT need to be a separate event for these models.  Our AMA rules are structured to be similar to the FAI rules which combine electrics and IC engines in the same rules."

I tend to look at 1/2 A stunt and profile stunt as mostly low key FUN events and I have pointed out that they are Unofficial Events and it is the sponsoring club and the CD that set the rules for their unofficial events which must be advertised in advanced. 

Perhaps, some clubs may want to experiment with adding electric planes and see how it works out. The power to choose resides at the local level rather than coming down from some national authority.

That's what I found out , till next time ,
                                                            Pat Roninson