RE: Why is my motor shutting down with a full charge?
I also experienced faulty Firebird Packs, but Horizon Hobby made them good.
Jordon, can you put a simple volt meter in parallel with your battery pack, in other words a voltmeter with the + on the + side of the pack, and the - on the - side of the pack, then turn it on with your transmitter, through the ESC. Watch at what voltage the motor stops. I'll bet the guys with "bad cell" information are correct. It shows 1.2 volts, untill a load is put on it, then it drops to "0" or very near it.
Good luck. I have a beautiful Rascall in purple and white, which I'm afraid to destroy but it has great thrust with a 2.5 : 1 geared Max speed 400, and a Master airscrew 8/6 electric prop. It gets 7.5 oz of thrust on a 7 cell 600mAh Nimh battery pack, for a 0.31 thrust to weight ratio.