Two things I didn't see mentioned are that you need to make sure the lipos you buy can handle the amp draw applied to them. The blade draws roughly 8 amps, so keeping that in mind, you need a lipo that can handle 8 amps continuous and about 11 amps surge (this would be minimum). To keep the arithmetic simple, an 8c at 1000mah constant would give you 8 amps. My 1320's are 10c, therefore I can handle 13.2 amps. Drawing too many amps can cause a battery to heat up very quickly. Doing this too long will allow you to gather the smoldering pieces of your heli off the ground. That is if you're not standing too close at the time, in which case someone else will gather the pieces. I accidently used a 2c-650 lipo on my pico once, and I emphasize, once. I was lucky and the pack only swelled up to twice it's normal size. Very lucky.

Second note: never intentionally discharge the battery like most people do NiCads and Nimh's. Just put it on the charger and recharge from wherever it's at. Lipos have no inherent memory problems like other rechargeables of the past.

One final mention, Lipos are quite safe if handled properly. And well worth the effort. I highly recommend a quality charger (plan to spend $70-$100), most of the safeguards are built in. Now if they could just figure out how to program common sense.


While I'm here....Talon....You mentioned cutting down the blades. Decreasing your total rotor diameter will require a lot of head speed. More likely you'll not get off the ground. You could maybe lift off with a higher tooth pinion, but then you'd have to change back if you put on the normal size blades. I usually CA the ends and tape them back together to hold the covering in order to get just a few more flights out of my old ones. You should see the patch job on the ones I have on now. They'd make Frankenstein proud, but they fly great. Make sure you balance any pair you use to each other. I have never found a matched set yet. Again, common sense rules. Pitch'm if they scare you.