ORIGINAL: cmoulder

I got in 6 more flights this morning.

I arrived at the field early enough that, while windy, it was still fun to fly. The last couple of flights were done with gusts kicking up 25-30 mph (estimated, but it was damn windy!) By then, it was not fun any more.

First flights with the dual FP 350mAh Rx batteries were interesting, in a good way. I topped off the Rx batteries with a Polycharge 4 (non-balancing charger) and voltages read 8.32 and 8.29. I checked voltages after each flight and one battery was drawing more than the other, but only by a small amount. At the end of the 6 flights the voltage of Batt 1 was 7.96V and Batt 2 was 8.14V. So I could have - as Arch assured me earlier - easily gotten 12 flights from these 2 tiny batteries.

Upon recharging (with the balance taps on the Cellpro 10S), Batt 1 took 105 mAh and Batt 2 took 47 mAh, for a total of 152 mAh, which when divided by 6 flights is about 25 mah per flight.

Granted, I am flying the humble Intermediate sequence and am learning to be judicious with my control inputs, but this was quite a surprise.

Regarding the difference in battery draw, the regs were factory set identically for 6.2 volts, so I am guessing the small discrepancy is caused by slightly different resistance in the connecting wires, wire length or connector contact/conductivity. Just to be sure, I re-checked the Tech-Aero regs with Ed's EZ Set Programmer and they were indeed reading 6.19v and 6.20v. With such minimal amp draw, the slight discrepancy is not an issue.

EDIT: While putting the batteries back in the model I remembered that the receiver is a 7-channel and that I had to use a Y connector for Elevator 2 and the second battery, which probably affects the resistance and accounts for the difference in current draw.