I'll offer my NiCd care routine for whoever is interested. A new pack gets 5 cycles before going into the plane, and I check the capacity on each one. I slow charge the pack on a C/10 rate with the peak detection sensitivity turned all the way up. Every pack I've had started off a little low on capacity, then improved to a little better than its rated capacity by the 5th cycle. The 5 cycle routine has two purposes: to break in the pack so that it delivers full capacity, and (mostly) to test the pack to make sure there are no faults that will cause an early failure. I've caught one new pack this way that was bad from the factory. It was a name brand pack that was toward the upper end cost wise and would have cost me a model if I had used it without testing. I write the capacity of the last test on the battery for future reference. Then every 6 months I do a single cycle test by discharging and doing a C/10 charge then discharging again. I write that capacity and the date on the battery so I can see the history of the pack later. When I notice a 10% drop in capacity I'll do the test again, then toss the pack when it's down to 80%. Some packs will deteriorate to that point in a couple of years, while others can last 5-6 years and still be good packs. The point is I know the true condition of my packs always and can catch problems before they cost me a plane. I am currently switching over to LiFe packs and will do the same testing on them that I do on NiCd's to ensure that I am always flying with good packs.