ESC turned it's self into a roman candle
I've only owned to electrics so I don't know if this is a typical thing or if it's something I did that I need to change. I have a DWFoamies Juka. The battery packs went bad last winter so I set it aside. This spring I bought two new packs. The same brand, voltage ,type, etc, etc. Charged them and went to fly yesterday. Plugged the pack in. The ESC went through it's normal beeps. Moved all the surfaces and it worked perfect. Ran the motor up twice. Thought it pulled a little harder than normal but it's been over a year since I flew it so it could have been my perception. Walked about 50' to launch it. When I went to throttle up the motor acted like it was trying to turn both directions. Tried a second time same thing. Spun the prop to make sure it would free wheel. It did so and I throttle up again. All hell broke loose. Sparks and smoke spayed out of the ESC about a foot. It melted the board and luckily the Deans came loose or may have shorted the pack. When I got home I put the pack on a charger after it cooled off. It took it 16 minutes to charge and balance. Normally one of these packs after a full flight takes 45-50 minutes.
So after that long description I guess my question is: Is this just a bad ESC? Is it normal for one to do this when it goes bad? Had it been a full fused plane I think it would have been totaled.
BTW the ESC is a Dynamo 25amp W/bec 2-3S Lipoly 30A burst. The packs are 1300mah 25C 3S from Great Plains. Sorry I don't know what the motor is but I have 100+ flight on the combo with the old batteries.
Thanks in advance, David