excellent advice,MINN......a HOBBICO expanded volt meter costs less than $10.00 and will save a lot of crashed planes due to battery failure......they are also very easy to read for a "newbie".......red means don't fly, green means fully charged and ready for flight.......i don't always trust the light on the wall charger......i guess you could say i had a good teacher, back when i joined my first RC club......my mentor taught me to charge and test all my batteries the day "BEFORE" i go fly.....sometimes if your charging batteries and loading planes into the car,etc., etc. the day of flying, you might get in a hurry and over look something, that could result in an accident.......i check my batteries right after i finish charging and i check them at the field after every 2-4 flights, depending which type of plane i'm flying and how hard i decide to push it that day......my parkflyers and trainers fly around in circles all day and don't draw/drain as much current.....on the other hand, my 3d'ers are hanging on the prop all day, which puts a lot of strain on the 5 servos and that tends to draw the batteries down considerabely more......point is, $10.. volt meter will pay for itself very quickly and is a lot cheaper than a $300.00 plane.......simple math i would say.....HOPE THIS HELPS......(KOOLKRABBER47)..........