I charged up my batteries last night with all intentions of going flying this morning. Due to unforseen items I will not be able to go until tomorrow morning. My question is, should I charge the batteries again? I do not have a cycler. Should I turn on the trans. and receiver for a few hours and then recharge??

G'day Mate,
Just go & fly, nicads loose about 16% of their charge over a week, approx. I'm going flying in the morning myself, I have a Katana with an OS 160FX & 6 servos, & 1100Mah battery pack. I charged it last Sunday night but didn't fly monday, I'm not worried about the batteries having enough charge for tommorrow.

Scooter,

You'll be fine. I would recommend at some point buying a load tester for checking the batteries at the field. I use this one. Most hobby shops sell them.

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXWW16&P=ML

Oh yea, one other thing, DO NOT leave the transmitter on without the antenna being fully extended. This can overheat the output side and seriously reduce the transmitter range along with causing permanent damage. I also would not recommend you doing it with the receiver either

If you accidently allow the batteries to discharge too low you can get cell reversal which can be a real problem. You can just charge again on top of the exiting charge or fly as-is with a very marginal drop in capacity.

You will be fine. If it was going to be 3 or 4 days, then I would suggest putting them back on the charger.

I would not suggest turning on the transmitter and receiver then going away for a few hours. If you want to do it that way, turn them on, then play with (move) the controls for about 30 - 45 minutes. MAKE SURE THE ANTENNA IS FULLY EXTENDED ON THE TRANSMITTER - there have been several reports of transmitters overheating when the transmitter is on for extended periods of time (over 10 minutes ) with the antenna collapsed.

Also keep in mind that with modern batteries, even NiCads. the need for cycling is often highly exagerrated. Some people will have you believe that you should drain your batteries every cycle. This may have been true a long time ago, but no more. If you want more information on this subject, Red's R/C battery clinic is a great source of information: http://www.rcbatteryclinic.com