What is a good battery for beginner learning on a slowstick?
How many cells and what mAh?

I fly mine with a 2 cell LiPo, what's that 7.4 volts? This would equate to a six cell Nimh. Go with 1000ma up and you should be fine. The airplane isn't sensitive to battery weight, just make sure it balances. It will fly easily at half throttle.

The airplane is sensitive to wind so make sure you fly it on a very calm day. It it a real fun plane but is sensitive to airspeed in that the faster it flys the more lift it gets (highly undercambered wing) so you need to be ready to crank in a little down trim to keep it level.

Highly recommend it.

I have 2/3 AA, 6 cell, 400mah nicads in mine. Flies well but the batteries take forever to charge back up.
I was considering upgrading to lipos but was told by club members that I would need a different esc and a brushless motor (not to mention a lipo charger) is this true?

He's half right - maybe. It depends on what your ESC is. Some support nicads, nimhs and lipos. I suspect that most will not though. If your existing brushed ESC does not support lipos then the cut off voltage will be too low and your lipo would be damaged. You could buy a lipo-aware brushed ESC.

Look here for an example of the options - same ESC but with different battery options - [link=http://www.gws.com.tw/english/product/speedcontroller/480.htm]GWS[/link]

The bottom one is the lipo-aware one and they have the same for other power ratings as well.

BTW, we've been using a 6 cell 900mAh pack borrowed from a FBC and it's not a PITA to recharge - maybe an hour or so.

Thanks for the info, do you know anything about prop savers as i keep breaking props even on mild landings?

Well, UM...'prop savers' are nothing more than a collar with 2 screws to hold it to the drive shaft and an o-ring holding the prop to the screws. You can make your own, and they do work very well.....unless you hit the wrong rudder while attempting a KE at 15 ft. Then you need a 'plane-saver'.

UM...so I've heard.

OH....and get some Lipos. Yes you need a different charger and Yes you may need a new ESC, but as you advance in electrics you will need them anyway. You can get a brushless motor for $20 and an ESC for like $35.

Go to http://chargerrc.com

You can get an entire plane combo with everything but a transmitter for under $200...and they fly great!!

Has the policy of not recommending Lipos to new pilots who are still crashing changed?

I liked my Speed 300 Slow Stick on 7 cell 650mAh nimhs, but it also flys well with 7 cell 1100 mAh nimhs.

LOL...'policy'

Let me check my PUBLIC forum manual.

Sheesh....people are capable of reading directions and last time I checked, even the most experienced flyers crash now and then.

There is nothing mysterious about Lipos any more than there is about mixing ammonia and bleach. (They aren't allowed to talk about that on the beginners 'house-cleaning' forums either).

Maybe we should only discuss rubber bands and nylon springs. The metal springs might be too dangerous for this forum.

For GOD"S SAKE.....don't mention anything about glow engines!!!!


Shhhhhhhh...were keeping the cool stuff to ourselves.

Is a 5amp ESC good for a 350 motor running 7 cells NIMH 1000Amh?

I think the lipo decision comes down to how careful a person is. If you're the type who tends to be forgetful (leaving batteries on charge over night) and takes short cuts (such as not confirming that the charger is set correctly) then lipos are not a good choice, you may set something on fire. If you are careful (don't leave them unattended and use caution when setting the charger) and buy a good charger, they shouldn't be a problem.

I wasn't aware of any such poilicy either. A lipo is simply a much more efficient power source than any Nihm, Nicad packs. With the ability to read, they are no more dangerous than any other battery. In fact the only battery I have ever had blow up on me is a Tx Nicad battery that is supposed to be able to charge over night on the wall-wart.

Most everyone I know that flies Electrics too,(as well as glow) all have field chargers like mine. I have it properly fused with 8 guage wire leads running right off the battery of my truck so I can charge them on my way to the field or at the field as well. So there is no over night or unattended charging, even though the charger has a fail safe that makes it quit charging & start beeping & flashing the light when the battery is done.


That is just like saying well your still crashing so you should only use a GMS engine in your Trainer, no OS .46AX for you!!

Heck I'm finally starting to fly fairly well, & starting to learn how to 3D a bit, but I certainly haven't forgotten how to crash an airplane!!

When I do crash one, it really doesn't matter what type of power source I was using now does it?


The answer to your question was answered by netdudeuk, ie. proper esc is required for lipo or just as he said you'll will ruin a perfectly good lipo pack.
If you are unhappy with the flight times you are getting with the stock battery (whatever type may come with the Slowstick) just step up the mah rating the higher the rating the longer it will hold a charge. (Milli Amps per Hour=mah).

I don't believe I would waste the money to go brushless on something like the Slowstick or anything else that the name ends in the word stick for that matter Lol, however if you find that you like electrics & after you master this Slowstick & want to move on to better planes, then you will probably want to go brushless with lipos on your next plane. If that becomes the case then all your questions would probably be better answered in the Electrics forums. There's a lot to learn about thrust to weight ratios when building electrics & those guys have all the answers right down to RPM calculations with all the different power combinations, motor,esc, lipo, & props.

I'm just now starting to understand how to put together the right power combos for electrics. I know Agexpert is messing around with them too, ( Foamies) If you stay with electrics there is alot of info in those forums, be sure to use it. Nothing sux worse than wasting a lot of money on a power system only to find out it came up short on power, when for $5 more you could have got the right motor & had the perfect combo, been there, hated that!!

I wasn't referring to whether or not someone can be careful charging their batteries. I was thinking more along the lines of how crash resistant different types of batteries are. The batteries are hangin' in the wind on a Slow Stick and, in the 'right' kind of hard impact, what's to protect them?

Oh I see. I don't think they are any less vulnerable to impact than any other type of battery, only to over charging & over discharging but it's not like they will blow up upon impact or anyhting like that. They're still just a battery, not an explosive. They are also hanging right out there on the side of the fuse on our Foamies too, held in place with nothing but velcro & 3D Foamies tend to get crashed a lot harder than what any Slowstick would be capable of. IMO.

What ?

Crash a foamie? WHO?.... Me?.........THAT WAS A HARD LANDING!!


Who told you anyway!? (First time I ever thought it would be easier to build a new one than to glue the pieces back together).

AND....The lipo survived just fine. It's currently being flown in other foamies.

It was still just a hard landing though.....Darned rumor mill....Grrrrr

Ok, let's clear up a thing or two. It's not a "policy" of any kind. But let's look at what we have here in the this forum. This is the "Beginner's" forum. The beginner in this hobby will usually buy a trainer plane and a basic radio (or get them together in a RTF package). The radio is going to come with a "wall wart" battery charger that they will use to recharge their batteries. After these basics batteries can actually become very complicated, more complicated than what the Beginner's forum is here for. So that's why we don't normally discuss things like Lipo and other advanced batteries.

From what I have seen and read about the newer Lithium batteries it is my understanding that they shouldn't be used after a crash, because the crash can damage the battery to the point that they can catch fire when recharged. If I am wrong I will gladly accept correction from one of the battery experts out there. But with this in mind I don't think that we need to be recommending them to people just getting started in this hobby. In addition to the dangers involved the cost of the batteries and the charger need to maintain them can also be pretty high, another reason why we usually don't discuss them here. Maybe 5-10 years down the road Lithium batteries may be run of the mill everyday equipment, but for right now they are "cutting edge" technology that is just getting started out.

Ken