bmpowell It did arrive, and I bought one at £140. It's now available from Al's.Hobbies

bmpowell if you are a beginner as your question suggests, Mode 2 with motor on the left stick, is best for you. You may be able to change your current transmitter, ask at your local club for help. As for the Trainstar aircraft, yes, you will be able to set it up correctly, but, again, it's not such an easy plane that you can fly without some help. For example, it's going to fly towards you at some point, and that will appear to reverse some control. It's faster than some beginners planes, so you need to be able to slow it, and react quickly. Get help form a club.

bmpowell This is a .30 sized aircraft. Its not really suited to nitro, though, because there are no internal bulkheads to contain the fuel leaks, or a heavy firewall to absorb the vibration. Worse, performance will suffer because electric motors swing larger propellers and you'll be able to climb better, accelerate sooner, and fly high-alfa landings without concern the engine is going to die.

bmpowell You can use a variety of motors as long as you monitor the temperatures on the first few flights. Mine has quite a big motor, and it flies a long time so you'd expect it to get hot, but it doesn't. Its not used hard, so the motor is under-stressed, so doesn't heat up. If you mount your motor directly to the plastic and fly at full throttle you might have problems with the motor over-heating. As there are so many variables, my suggestion is to fly gently for a few minutes at first, and then check the temperature. Then build up speed and flight time to be sure the power setting and duration when the over-heating starts. (the battery capacity has little bearing, 3cells from 1500 to 4000mah work just fine) If you need to cool things down, add a plywood spacer between the motor and plastic nose to insulate the plastic from the motor. My biggest motor has a 5mm spacer. But, this is not a hot plane, I have three with different motors and I've not needed to add any forced ventilation. On other similar models I've had to cut cooling holes, and added scoops to force in the air, but not on this one. The next thing to look at is your flying style. A lot of pilots from the gas-glow side who habitually fly with full throttle do the same with electrics. Its not necessary because with electric you can go from zero to full power in an instant, and gliders like this are light, so react quickly. Play that throttle stick, and let the plane glide through loops and rolls with very l

bmpowell The maximum power rating is given as 500watts. That is 10amps at 50 volts, so if you use 50 volts you need a 10amp fuse. If you use lower voltages you can use higher amperages. So to get the 30a maximum current permitted (before you burn out the circuitry) you divide 500 by 30 which is 16 volts If you run at 16 volts you can be expected to get up to 30amps safely, so you can then fit a 30amp fuse. But don't push your luck, on a hot day with poor cooling, the device may overheat and become damaged. Better allow a safety margin, fit a fan, or buy a bigger controller. As an extreme, putting 50v in and taking out 30amps is at 1500watts three times the capacity. So it will get very hot very rapidly. And burn out sooner or later.

bmpowell Yes, its fine, as long as your motor never draws as much as 30amps.

bmpowell Yes, it can. The input voltage is fed through to the load (wire cutter in your case) and reduced in proportion to the control knob setting. Start off at the lowest setting and increase slowly until you have the right heat in the wire. See this as a valve holding back a high water pressure and allowing through a trickle or a flood, depending how much you turn the control. Its a DC (direct current) controller, don't forget. It needs 12 to 50v batteries for input. So do not connect it to AC mains, you will damage it (or you). Whoever said this thing controls the 'speed' of the electricity needs to go back to school.

bmpowell These require a transmitter with four main controls: power, ailerons, rudder, and elevator, plus extra channels for the flaps, and an additional channel for the second aileron. So, six channels, and the receiver needs the same, or more of course. Most transmitters with this number of channels will have the range required, a few hundred metres or so. These days all transmitters and receivers perform adequately, which is why some of the people suggest you choose one to suit yourself, there is a wide range available. On this site, you can find the well regarded Teransis in various forms, choose the cheapest. On other sites you can get Graupner MZ-12 or Multiplex Cockpit, and these perform very well. At the top end choose Jeti, sets that are built for the best long-term use.