Absolutely. That's the very first thing my RC instructor drilled into me. He would say "Alright Captain... What are you going to do to start this session?"

Of course, it was always the same answer.. for the first flight of the day, preflight, starting before I mounted the wing, starting at the rudder and working my way forward to the prop. This included checking the battery for charge condition. Then, assemble the plane.. mounting the wing... he would count the rubber bands on my Tower 40, then on the NexStar, watching me bolt it on. He would shake, rattle, and roll the thing and then have me do the same thing.

When it was ready for flight, it was indeed ready and I was assured that nothing would fail in flight.

I still do that. That may be why I've not had many crashes over the years. Those that I DID have were due to my failure to do something or doing something stupid.. all of which I've documented here on RCU, and that has not been many... I contribute that to my instructor drilling the preflight into me from week one, day one, hour one, and minute one.

Now, I rely on my voltwatch for most of my pre-flight inspection. All but the very first flight of the day, when I check the battery, batteries on two planes because I have two planes with parallel battery packs. For the first preflight, I check the batteries with the loaded voltmeter. After that, I rely on Voltwatch2 to keep me honest.

CGr.