Welcome Lester,

Just go to the top of this section and look at the "List your System" thread that Crist was kind enough to put together for us. There are many examples for your size engine replacement.

You can also go to Eric Rules extensive CL web site (RSM Distribution) and buy his excellent "turn key" Electric system. It was designed to replace a .46 Eng. It has everything you need and is pre programed so it is "plug and play" ready. :-)

If you build very light, and have a classic style thin airfoil and a streamlined plane, then the Electric systems from Brodak will work fine. If you subscribe to "CL World" mag. then you can see the very good article by Dennis on these systems. If you get this informative CL mag. then you may want to read the excellent electric CL articles by Mike Palko in past issues.

The system that has been very successfully used by many E CLPA pilots, thousands of CLPA flights, is:

              AXI 2826-10 motor, Castle Creations 40 or 45 ESC, Thunder Power (or Hyperion) 3800 mAh battery and the excellent Hubin FM-9 timer with programmer. APC 12 x 6 Electric Pusher Prop.

If you are a PAMPA member you may want to look at the E-Stunt column written 1st by Will Moore and now by someone else (I forget his name). There is info there that may help you get started.

RE: the Chargers, equip. installation etc., You may want to read many of the excellent posts in this section then come back with any questions you still have.

Your question has been answered many times on this forum. It should be easy to find many good explanations using Roberts effective "Search" function at the top upper right part of this page.

Regards, 

Lester,
To add a little to Rudy's post, the system he described works very well with an APCE 12x6 prop (either tractor or pusher) turning at around 8400 rpm on 62ft center to center lines at around a 5.1 lap time. The ship will be around 600 - 610 sq in area, around 58 oz total with battery. A good candidate ship is the Vector (lots of information on this board about converting one to electric) and the Brodak electric Clown if you want a complete package. One thing you want to spend your money on is a very high quality charger. I use the Thunder Power 610c there are others this is important because a good charger will prevent over charging mishaps and give you long pack life. Areas that you could save some $ is in the motor - use a Turnigy Sk 35-48B 900 in place of the AXI 2826-920. The timer could be a ZTron version 3 or 4. I would stick to the CC Phoenix 45 or ICE 50 ESC. I use the fixed rpm mode in the ESC, set for the rpm I want, program the timer for a soft start and 20 sec start delay and go. Hope this gets you going

Best,           DennisT

Oh no why would you do such a horibole thing  loke going electric  Wait a second here I did it too.
Good job great thinking i think you will like it and hate the facet that you have only good motor runs from now on. Hehehehe
Welcome to E CL flight

Hi Nick - WELCOME to ECL!

I think the "List your Set-ups" link is golden for folks wanting to see how others have solved the E-flight question and it covers lots of applications from 1/2A size through 75's.  Thus I think Will's suggestion of picking the airframe (even if only for comparison purposes) makes a lot of sense.

One other angle - you say "a 46 size" but that could cover a lot of ground.  I have come around instead to thinking what size PROP do I want to use.  With the prop dimension in mind it makes it easier to start sizing up the motor and batteries.

Luckily, unlike IC engines, the power levels of brushless motors are all quite comparable - Not exactly Ford versus Chevy here, it basically it boils down to the amount of copper & iron!  There are some small dfferences in dimensions that help too - for example the Arrowind motors sold by Brodak and the Scorpion motors are about 2mm larger in diameter than facing models of AXI - that does translate in somewhat more power - & weight - than the comparable length AXI.  The Brodak motors will also fly THICK wings (like Strega) quite well too. (sorry it needed to be said!)

Pricing is bewildering.  You can mail order direct from China and score some really good motors at prices that look like fiction.  I'm flying a Turnigy SK35-42 that cost me $17.51 and I have seen others spend over $200 for motors that cannot outperform it.  Numerous others have successfully flown other low cost & high price motors.  Logic suggest that higher prices should bring higher quality - but the collective experience does not show a clear correlation!

Batteries have improve significantly - and continue to get better.  So have chargers.  Lots of easy choices.

I like Castle Phoenix & ICE ESC's and Wil Hubin Timers.  Lots of others do too.

Probably the biggest thing is to NOT BE INTIMIDATED by the new stuff.  Its all pretty well proven out by now, virtually plug and play.  You can always get  help here too!