Tommy, et al.

I think it depends on exactly what your needs are....if when you go to the field you have say an hour (lunchtime for instance) and you want to get in 4 flights....you are going to need 4 packs as there is no chance of getting anything charged. For me this is often the situation, so I have adopted a practise of less field charging and more packs. Everyone is going to be different....I know some that have two packs and go do 2 flights in the AM, charge then 2 more in the PM...so two packs works for them. Contests usually have enough time between rounds that you can generally charge between them......if you remember of course!

As the packs improve, now 2C charging is coming around. I do this with some 2100 Prolites that I have for my T-rex, 35 minutes to a full charge on my Schulze 330d. The new TP charger will do 2C on a 5000 mAh battery. From the looks of it the degredation from charging this fast is quite low and will probably come in handy when you really need that last flight and dont want to wait long! On my 2100's the charger is going to CV mode in 20 minutes

Things move fast in the e-world....there are more companies now coming with packs to challenge the TP 5300 standard....at good prices. As tech improves the cost will drop...bad for TP maybe...but good for pattern. I think in another year we are going to see e-setups that are less expensive to run than a YS 160DZ.....and a boatload more reliable as well

Steve makes a good point about the cycles with pack numbers....that should factor into the equation when you buy packs. If you plan on doing 800 flights in a year you should have at least 4 sets....while if you fly 100 flights in a year 4 sets is just going to be a waste

Anyways, back to sanding [>:]