At the risk of being branded a heretic, I think all of you guys are way over kill on your battery setups.

My 28% Edge setup is the conventional 4- HS5945s and one 8611 with two HS225BB (throttle and choke) and a DA50 for power. I’ve been using ONE 2s1p Thunder Power 2200Mah Lipoly w/ a 6 volt regulator for Rx, and one 2s1p TP 1320 Mah w/ 5 volt reg. for ignition. The Rx voltage Reg. is rated at 10 amp. It’s never even been warm after a flight.

Based on careful checking after approx. 50 flights, here is what I’ve found. Sixty minutes of flight time consumes about 600 ma of Rx battery (that’s 4 -5 flights of 10 – 15 minutes) and the ignition draws even less (> 200 Mah). My flight style is predominantly IMAC with some mild 3D. To me this means that we are really over doing the electrical systems on the 28% planes.

Next (here comes the blasphemy, flame suit ON), I don’t think there’s anything wrong with using Lipoly batteries in gas and/or fuel planes. Yes, they have some issues, but ANY rechargeable battery can be blow up by improper handling. Treat them with care and respect, just as you do gasoline, and you’ll be fine.

IMO - You don’t need 4amps of NiMH on board for the radio, it’s just dead weight! And, 2000 Mah of ignition battery is REALLY dead weight. “Lighter is better” are words to build by. A 16 lb. plane will fly better than the same plane at 18 or 19 pounds, period.

What I would really like to do is get a data recorder to track the amp load during flight. I think we would all be amazed at how little current is actually being drawn by the servos. Based on that data we could come up with a suitable battery configuration that would have a comfortable safety margin without adding excess weight.