Recently I bought a Hobbico ESV to check my Rx batteries.I've always just charged overnight and flown. But it was on sale and, well you know how it is. Anyways, after flying for about an hour and a half I decided to take a read out of the Rx battery. I really haven't managed to grasp this whole electrical thing but I got a red light/charge light and a reading of 4.78 on a typical 4.8 battery pack. Does this mean I was near serious trouble had I kept flying? How low a read out can one get and still be reasonably safe? Hope this question makes sense as I know there are a lot of factors invloved.

Norm what you should have done was taken the plane home and discharge the pack with a dependable discharger. That would have told you how much energy (in terms of milliamps) was left in the battery pack when you took that meter reading. The amount of energy left in the pack is what really counts. The meter is just a tool to help alert you to the fact that you might be reaching the end of your battery packs energy. So if you read 4.78 on your meter and then you discharged at home and found that you had XX milliamps left in your battery you have to determine if that is a good place for you to stop flying. Obviously you had a successful day at the field today even though you flew until your meter read 4.78 volts. So keep that 4.78 number in your head as something that was acceptable at least today.

Send me an Email and I will Email you back with more comments. That meter, if used correctly, can be very useful. Probably far more than you think at first.