Model Forum / Radio Controlled / Water Models / November 2004

Better watch it -- Paul apparantly feels that this thread is `his',
and has expressed his displeasure in having it `hijacked' without
having gotten an answer (even though he had gotten several good
suggestions by that time.) :)

As for the ASCII art, well, it's been around for a while.  I cannot
take credit (or blame) for the Macarena guy, however.

I was referring to a previous post of mine ...

I don't do any `formal' battery maintenance system.  I generally fast
charge (0.5C - 1C) my planes right before I go fly, with the exact
rate depending on how much warning I give myself.  I generally only
slow charge when a pack is brand new, or just once in a while to
equalize all the cells.

After flying, if it's a plane I rarely fly (or if I don't plan on
flying it for a month or two), I usually put a discharger on the
battery (down to 1 volt/cell), otherwise I do nothing.

Periodically I will cycle my packs just to see what sort of capacity
they have -- I'm not religious about it, but I usually do it every
month or two in the case of the planes I fly regularly, or before I
fly if it's one of the planes I fly only every few months.  I also
generally do a cycle whenever I notice something amiss -- like having
the battery peter out earlier than expected.

Most of my planes have Hobbico Air Alerts on them -- they will warn me
if the battery is low.  Mostly it's there in case the plane is lost,
but the battery warning is nice too.

And up until last saturday, I'd never had a battery fail mid-flight,
which I chalked up to 1) luck and 2) my bigger planes having two packs
and 3) being relatively careful with my batteries.  (I don't do any
giant scale planes, so *extreme* care isn't really justified.)

But last saturday, I'm slope soaring around, and suddely my glider
spirals out of control with no warning.  WTF?  It wasn't damaged (it
was a built up plane, but still pretty resiliant) but it turns out
that the voltage was under 4 volts.  I'd forgotten to charge it before
I flew.  Well, to be more precise, I was assuming that it still had
enough charge from last time to fly again.  (Which is normally a valid
assumption in my case, but this time it failed me.)

The glow planes I always charge before flying, but with the small
slope fliers sometimes I'll let that slide -- after all, they're
small, the batteries are usually bigger than is needed (why use
ballast when you can use a bigger battery?) and accidents are usually
non-events (i.e. the worst that'll happen is you have to trek down the
hill to get your plane.)

I think from now on, I'll make sure to throw every plane I fly on the
charger before flying.  Even if only on the way to the field.  Even if
it's only a sloping foamie.