Balance charge; all upside, no downside.

LiPo for Rx pack : you can do it, but it is a pain, and more risk than its worth IMHO. go with LiFe or NiCd for Rx packs... you can charge them in the plane.. no fire hazard... and they will last you a full days flying in most cases.

You mention having to charge your Rx pack every 20 minutes or so..... can you explain this a bit more? Do you have something besides the Rx/Servos hooked up? I can get an hour or so of flying out of your typical 700mah NiCad pack and can fly for the better part of 2-3 hours on my 2500mah LiFe packs without considering charging...likely longer in many cases. I'm wondering if there is something else going on here that we could help with if you are forced to charge your Rx pack every 20 minutes.