I usually wait until I get to the field and then quick charge my TX and RX packs from my car battery with my Hobbico Quick Field Charger Mk II. Ten to fifteen minutes of charge time at 1A is enough to fully charge my batteries while I'm unloading my flight box, sticking my stooge in the dirt, and saying hello to the rest of the guys.

If I'm doing a little maintenence to a plane before I take it flying, I will trickle charge it on the AC charger, but I usually don't bother bringing planes into the house unless I need to straighten some gear or fix something.

As for cycling your batteries, I like doing it at least once over the winter. I'm a three-seasons flyer here in Nebraska, so when I'm bored in February I'll run all of my TX and RX packs through a 5 cycle run on my MRC Super Brain 989 just to keep them tuned up and to check them out.

In theory, quick charging at the field like I do is supposed to shorten the life of your batteries. In practice, all of my NiCd packs are still cycling above rated capacity after three seasons of flying with them.