About US

About US

CH Ignitions was owned and operated by Bill, Darlene, and Candy Carpenter until 2011, after this operation was transferred to Adrian Ciulei that continue servicing, produce and maintain all CH Products.

Bill is an active model builder and flyer and has been for more than sixty years. (A.M.A. 2500). I started building and flying rubber powered and townie gliders during World War Two. Not much flying. I chased models for miles across the sand hills of Nebraska.

I wish I could do that now.

We lived on a ranch 25 miles south of Bassett NE. I went on to free flight and then control line. I flew competition stunt for years, even at the nationals once in Olathe, Kansas. I believe in 1949.

I built my first RC model around 1955. This had an escapement for rudder control only. These sometimes flew away. I would borrow a friends Piper Pacer (150 HP) with flaps and go find them. I flew RC pattern for years, some scale and pylon racing. Now I fly “just for fun” sport flying. I mostly fly gas powered airplanes.

I will never be a good 3-D flier but I try. I have to go flying every chance I get to do R&D (research and development). My wife calls it “Roar” and “Dink around”. It’s tough duty but someone has to do it!

I remember in 1949 I run my first model engine with a glow plug and said I would never use another spark club in model engines. How times have changed. I built my first ignition for a model engine in 1979. I was told by a well-known flyer and writer not to quit my day job because “That thing will never sell”.

We have sold somewhere over 25,000 ignitions.

We actively test and fly all of our ignition products. At this time we only fly gas powered airplanes. Do not tell anyone but I do have a couple of electric airplanes.

If I could have seen the simple Slow Stick when I was a kid, I would have thought I was in heaven.
C.H. Ignitions is the oldest and most successful manufacturer of electronic ignition systems for model airplanes.

Note from Bill and Adrian

Thank you for buying and using CH Ignitions and parts.We have been building and servicing ignitions and engines for over 30 years we are still number one in quality, dependability, availability and service.

We are making some big changes here at CH Ignitions. We have continually upgraded and improved our CH Ignitions.
We have ignitions that are 20 years old, still in use and working fine!

We have worked with many of the RPV (Remote Pilotless Vehicle) builders who use our ignitions. They have proven that the CH Ignitions are the one system that will stand up to the desert heat. Both of the airplanes that were recently flown form Newfoundland to Ireland were equipped with CH Ignitions.

These RPV companieshave been buying nearly all the Heavy Duty systems we can build. All of our CH Ignition systems are now the HD system with a new high output ignition circuit, our own computer timing control and a new spark coil
(designed by one of the RPV engineers). This coil has a 30 KV output with a very low currant drain. The new HD systems are still fully serviceable and any part can be replaced. These systems come with Futaba battery and pulse switch connectors.

We will install Dean’s connectors at no charge if requested. The spark plug wire and metal spark plug cap provide full shielding.
These caps are now standard on the HD systems. We can still do the rubber boots if you want. We now have these full metal caps for the 14MM ¾ hex, NGK BPMR6A, BMR6A or Bosch R-10,14mm 5/8 hex taper seat NGK BPMR6F, Champion RDJ6J-7J, 10MM NGK CM 6 or Denso U20-M-U.

When you order spark plugs make sure you know what spark plug your engine is using. With all these new features we have still been able to lower the price on all the HD CH. systems.

CH Ignitions #1 ONE IN SALES, SERVICE AND RELIABILITY.
We have been in business over 30 years. When we started out we converted some of the smaller glow engines, both two and four stroke, to timed spark ignition. This was very successful, but times have changed and now we do mostly the small Gas Engines.

These are usually chain saw and weedwacker type engines and engines built just for R/C models.
CH supplied most of the major gas engine builders in the U.S. with Ignitions systems.

These include J&A, Fox, Challenge Tool, Taurus, First Place Engines, & several others. In addition we have CH Ignitions systems for the fine line of Zenoah & Evolution, Saito engines from Horizon Hobby, Fuji engines from Great Plains.
We also have light weight Ignition conversion for some of the weed eater engines such as the McCullough 28 & 32 CC., Home Lite 25 & 30 CC and the Ryobi 31.

We have timing kits for some of the Poulan and Echo engines. Most any small gas engine can be converted to our electronic ignition system. We do not have timing kits for all engines, just the popular ones. We have a universal timing kit that will work on many engines. We have replacement ignitions for many of the engines that already have C.D.I. ignitions including Brison, BME , Fuji, Zenoah, 3-W.CRRC. DA, Thor, BCMA, Copperhead ZDZ and most any other gas engine that has a hall effect trigger.

We have a bolt on kit for the Zenoah G20, If you and tired of the 2 to 3 amp current drain of the Zenoah G-20 & 26 EI.
Some of these engines have different wiring and plugs and will have to be rewired to work with our CH Ignitions. The easiest way to do this is to install a three pin connectors on both the ignition and pulse switch or replace the pulse switch with our switch. We can use Futaba or Dean’s plugs.

Some engines will have to have the timing reset to use the CH Ignitions or the CHXL ignition. If your engine now has the Falcon ignition your timing will have to be advanced about 25 degrees to use our ignition. We have replacement ignitions for most of the Chinese engines.

Many flyers like to build up their own engines. CH is the place to get the parts for these conversions.

Call us to see if we can help you set up your engine.