Price of platinum going up???

[Paul Taylor]

I hear rumor that the price of platinum will go up this fall driving up the price of glow plugs?
Anyone else hear anything about it?
 
This could effect the cost of glow plugs.

[Alan Hahn]

One of the Treetown club members is in the glow plug business, and from what I hear, the glow plug element material (platinum, rhodium, and whatever)  has only been increasing in price over the last few years. So I am guessing expect  glow plugs to increase in price over time.

Electrics are coming!

[Andrew Hathaway]

For the price of one electric setup drivetrain, I'm pretty sure I could buy enough glow plugs to last a lifetime.  Most of the time my glowplugs last longer then the plane anyway.  I've had several K&B plugs that have lasted years and hundreds of flights.  Even at $7 each, I'm getting my money's worth.  Engines are half the fun of CL for me.  As much as I hate cleaning exhaust oil off my plane, if it were electric or nothing, I'd probably just abandon flying and switch to engine collecting.

Has anyone found a way to recycle the valuable parts of the glowplug?  Is it valuable enough to make recycling a better option then tossing them?

[Alan Hahn]

Engine collecting may be a good future idea1

[Jim Kraft]

Andrew; I guess you know I am with you on this. If I had to fly a plane with electric power that had no soul and went Mmmmmmm, well I am pretty well on the way to collecting now. I do think electric will get better, but I see alot of the R/C guys going back to glow for many and varied reasons. ( Read that as expensive, and does not work ). It just is not an option for me as I have been an engine guy since I flew my first plane with an OK Cub .049.

On the glow plug thing, all you have to do is pull the element out to sell. I have a friend who went through about a zillion Cox glow heads, removed the elements, and sold them for around $2,000 dollars. And this was years ago.

BTW; Andrew has a Nobler with an OS Max 35s that sounds so good it makes tears come to your eyes. To many of us that is what it's all about, and not always easy to attain. Andrew has found the magic.

[Randy Powell]

Oh, I've watched Paul Walker fly his set up many times. It's awesome and trust me, plenty powerful (it is equivalent to a .90 after all). But unless the price of components and various and sundry equipment needed comes down, you won't see me with an electric setup anytime soon. Not without a second mortgage.

[Harleyman]

I'll be looking at Glow Plugs differently now.
Reminds me of a funny story.  Recently, a bunch of us were out flying. One of the guys was having a bear of a time trying to get his engine to fire.
We had good fuel flow, but no pop.  Maybe flooded, blow out the engine - nothing.  The igniter was one of those types that plugs into a power panel on a flight box, so we knew we had fire.  We change the plug - nothing.  Another plug - nothing.  Third plug - still nothing.  Then it was discovered, that the igniter was plugged into the "12V STARTER" outlet on the panel.  It was frying every plug the second it was attached.   Brilliant!       

[Mark Scarborough]

Slan
****Electrics are coming! ****

uh correction my good man, Electrics are HERE!

Jim,
****If I had to fly a plane with electric power that had no soul and went Mmmmmmm,****

well we all have our opinions dont we? for me the soul of the plane is when it comes from my fingers. It is a tool to perform a task with. My electric after only a short few flights has proven itself to be every bit the affective tool that a glow engine is. And if you fly one, you will experience things that you never knew happened with your planes. for example, flying in turbulance at the last contest, I could feel the tremor as the gust hit the airframe, and then feel the thermal move towards me down the lines, you wont feel that with your glow engine, the vibration masks it. but, each to their own.
That being said, there is something romantic about being first up on the circle with the misty fog just lifting, a light breeze drifting across the circle and smelling that castor.. its a lot like the romance of driving a 55 chev, or a 69 big block mustang, or a harley,, they all have their place, but are they the most effective tool for the job, well I guess that depends on how you define the "job then doesnt it?
bottom line, theres room for all of us, just dont make me loose my flying circle because your airplane is noisy please?

[Jim Kraft]

Ha!Ha!Ha! I love these kinds of stories Chris. We have all been there and done that type of thing many times. It reminds us that we are human after all. Sometimes I wish I was not quite so human.

[Jim Kraft]

Mark; You are exactly right. We all look at this hobby differently. I can see that electric will probably be the wave of the future, just because it will be the best tool to do the job. I look at it as what kind of a job will the tools that I like do. ( I also have a Harley ) The noise thing is getting to be a problem in a lot of places, and I understand this also. I am fortunate to fly at a place where noise is not a problem because I fly old 60 sparkers, and Fox 59's, without mufflers. I still remember the days when we used to fly at ball fields, parks, and school yards, without mufflers, and no one complained. Times has changed. Probably the only reason I fly competition, is to hang out with some really neat people that have the same interest that I do. Sometimes I even win. Just gravy.

[Mark Scarborough]

Yeppers, I love motors and noise too, and hey thanks for not taking offense at my opinion,, getting less common these days to be able to have an opinion and not get crudified for it,,,
My classic planes will continue to be noisy,,

[Scott B. Riese]

Yeppers, I love motors and noise too, and hey thanks for not taking offense at my opinion,, getting less common these days to be able to have an opinion and not get crudified for it,,,
My classic planes will continue to be noisy,,

To bad we can't keep the pilot quite....

[Mark Scarborough]

To bad we can't keep the pilot quite....

and to think,this is one of my friends? sigh,,
thanks Scott

[George]

For some of us, tinkering with the engine is just as much fun as flying the plane. I remember when most plugs cost $.49 so plug price increases is just something we have to live with. If worse comes to worse, I can always use the plugs in the engines I have collected over the years. Heck, I still have some old short Champion plugs.   

George

[Alan Hahn]

To bad we can't keep the pilot quite....

Actually it's worse than that, you can't keep the judges quiet! With electric you get to hear all your mistakes in real time  . A little deflating actually. With glow I could at least keep up the pretense that I was putting in a barn-burner of a flight --at least that is until I looked at the score board  . Now I don't even have to bother to look!

[Mark Scarborough]

Yes Alan, I must relate to that, the rolls of laughter from the pits while you are scorching in your top line performance can be rather disconcerting!, The worst part is when I go to cuss myself for blowing a move,, Its like helping the judges,, sigh, gotta learn to keep my mouth shut! at least while I am flying.
hm seems we hijacked this one eh?

[Alan Hahn]

Well to get back to the original thread, the price of platinum etc. is going up, so glow plugs will be getting more expensive, at least the non-melamine ones will be!

[Jim Thomerson]

Yes the price of glow plugs will go up.  The price of diesel fuel will also go up, so no escape there.

So far as electric goes, the prices will come down because there are big bucks being spent on development of small, light, cheap, safe, battery-like thingies.  I've seen an ad for a device to put on your electric airplane which makes an engine sound.  I've seen a video of a scale electric thunderbolt which had Corsair engine noises.

Only one more thing needed, and electric is here.  This is a device which dumps 4 oz. of hot castor oil on your airplane during the flight.   

[Alan Hahn]

Also something that will shoot raw fuel on your nice new pair of sneakers!

[Jim Kraft]

Spark plugs aint cheap either, but they can be cleaned. Gasoline works great in sparkers, and only takes about half the amount of alky fuel. You can still get methonal for about $3.50 a gallon, and castor from Sig for about $25.00 a gallon. Sparkers run great on 3 to 1 mix of either one. Most of the R/C guys at the club field where I fly have all converted to gas engines. I see Saito has come out with a gas burning 4 stroke. With the new tech. in batteries and ign. systems, I can see where we could have gasoline as an option in C/L, with very little weight gain. Besides that; their COOL.

[kdheath]

The marketfor  precious for metals has gone nuts along with so many markets. We had several caralytic converters stolen off cars recently.  Why? The value of the metals.Had any copper pip stolen around your area?

[Andrew Borgogna]

Jim
You know given the current technology there would be very little in weight penalty to move stunt to ignition.  The F/F guys have been flying modern engines modified to run on ignition for years.  They use Hall Effect transisters for the timing pickup and the same basic iginition module we use on the old sparkies.  The ignition modules weights approximatily and ounce the coil is less than an ouce and two AAA alkeline batteries another ounce.  This has got me really thinking about doing a modern conversion to spark.
Andy